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AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE
- BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

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AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE
BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £20,000 - £30,000
  • ($31,000 - $45,000)

Sale Information

Sale 7745
important european furniture, sculpture & clocks
9 July 2009
London, King Street




Lot Description

AN EMPIRE ORMOLU CENTREPIECE
BY PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
With two winged Nike figures holding aloft a pierced oval basket, each resting on a foliate-wrapped sphere, above a stepped square plinth centred by fruit-filled classical urns and joined by a foliate-cast shaped stretcher with floral medallion, each plinth signed 'THOMIRE A PARIS'
26¼ in. (66.5 cm.) high; 24 in. (61 cm.) wide; 7¾ in. (20 cm.) deep

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Pre-Lot Text

THE PROPERTY OF A NOBLEMAN (LOTS 37 AND 38)

Provenance

By tradition given by Emperor Napoleon as part of a 75-piece suite of table decoration to Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859), by whom most probably given to ministerial counsel Baron Paul Anton von Handel. By descent to the Counts Pachta.

Literature

E. Leisching, der Wiener Kongress, Vienna, 1899, p 214 and illustrated pl. XXXVIII.

Lot Notes

This impressive centre de table, featuring winged maidens, or Nike figures, emblematic of Victory, was executed circa 1810 by maître fondeur-ciseleur Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843, maître in 1772).

As with the present lot, most of the recorded centrepieces of this type by Thomire have been linked to the Bonaparte family. A virtually identical example, almost certainly supplied to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and later King of Spain, was sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 233, while another, formerly in the collection of the Grand Duke of Baden (married to Stéphanie de Beauharnais, niece of Empress Joséphine and Napoléon's adopted daughter) was sold at Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1991, lot 290.

Further related examples include a centrepiece sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 December 2005, lot 286 (£54,000 with premium), and another in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (ill. in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I., p.382, fig. 5.16.1).

Department Information
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