Each with egg-and-dart overhanging rim, above a waisted body cast in relief with a continuous scene of mythological figures, the acanthus lower section flanked to each side by a fluted handle centred by foliage, with satyr mask terminals, on fluted spreading socle and square plinth, each stamped 'A.D. DELAFONTAINE'
Each 13 in. (33 cm.) high; 9. 1/2 in. (23.5 cm.) diameter

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Lot Essay

Auguste Delafontaine (1813-1892).
This pair of vases is modelled after the antique Medici vase, which was regularly copied from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, in a variety of media. The Medici Vase was displayed in the Villa Medici, Rome by 1598 and is currently in the Uffizi, Florence. It shows a sacrificial scene, once believed to be the fate of Iphigenia. As early as 1656, Stefano della Bella reproduced this vase in an engraving which may have encouraged the production of early copies. Some of the earliest copies are those in marble placed around the Bassin de Latone at Versailles. It has been suggested that this is a likely source for the manufacture of subsequent French versions in bronze.
A similar pair are illustrated in A. Moore, Houghton Hall, 1996, p. 116.