A French gilt-bronze-mounted green serpentine marble vase stamped B Y for Beurdeley, Paris late 19th century

in Louis XVI style, of baluster form with a trumpet neck within a twisted-ribbon border, above ribbon-tied swags of flowers, the handles in the form of an entwined serpent, the tapering body applied with gilt-bronze acanthus and scrolling foliage on a beaded socle with a twisted-ribbon border on a plinth base, the underside of one swag stamped 767, the base stamped B Y and the number 67; restored

Very attractive detail to the casting of mounts. The neck and body of vase have been restored but this has been very well executed and not too noticeable due to the mottling in the porphyry. The mounts are slightly dirty and would benefit from a light clean according to taste. In otherwise good restored condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Comparative Literature:
D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, G. Mabille, Gilt-bronze in the Louvre, Dijon, 2004, p. 226, plate 113.

This impressive vase is based upon a pair of  Louis XVI Vosges green porphyry vases with identical gilt-bronze mounts now in the Louvre (inv. OA 5270), illustrated by Alcouffe, op. cit., p. 226, plate 113, reproduced here in fig.1.

The Louvre vases belonged to Richard Mique, the architect who created the Trianon hamlet for Marie-Antoinette. The vases were originally in the ground floor antechamber of his residence in the Rue des Tournelles in Versailles. Upon his death by guillotine in 1794, they were described in his inventory together with the marble columns on which they were displayed as ` Deux vazes (...) en porphire verd de Vosges, formes ovales (ovoid), garnis au cul de lamped de feuilles d'acanthe, deux serpens enlassés formant les anses, ornés aussi de Giurlandes de fleurs attachées par des rubans;posés sur des colonnes de marbre servelas, lequelles ont our socles des marbres noir petit antique. La baze est ornée d'un boudin de laurier grainé. Tous lesdits ornements sont dorés d'or moulu, de 5 pieds 4 pouces (1.70m), estimé à (...) 3600L' 

The vases were not sold in 1795 with Mique's property but were deemed important enough to be sent to the `Museum of the French School' founded at the Château of Versailles in 1793. After a few years they were then sent to the First Consul's Apartments at the Tuileries. Mique's family were later compensated for the loss of these vases which remained at the Tuileries. In 1807, they were still there in Empress Josephine's first salon without their columns and in 1809, installed in the Galerie de Diane where they remained until at least 1851. They were recorded the Salon Blanc in 1855.

The stamp BY on the gilt-bronze base, is that of Louis-Auguste-Alfred Beurdeley (1808-1882). Maison Beurdeley was pre-eminent amongst the Parisian ébénistes and suppliers of objects in the latter part of the 19th century. He transformed the business of his father, which in 1840, moved to the rue Louis-Legrand at the corner of the Boulevard des Italiens. The Duc de Nemours and Napoleon III were amongst his illustrious clients. His business specialised in furniture and objects inspired by the 18th century, especially Louis XVI models. The quality of his work was highly prized and a report of the 1867 Paris Exhibition catalogue eugolizes `la qualité de sa fabrication, l'ébéniste le plus réputé de Paris dans ce genre, doué d'un goût exquis, pénétré de lascience des styles à un degré extrêment remarquable'.