CIRCA 1820-30

With their slender form and finely-chased mounts, it is difficult to determine whether these elegant vases are either French or Russian, or an interesting amalgam of the two. The same mounts of flute-playing winged mermaids are found on a vase crafted by Claude Galle in Paris in 1815 (H. Ottomeyer and P.Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, pp. 364, figs. 5.12.8). However, similar characteristic elements were also utilized by the bronzier Friedrich Bergenfeldt (1768-1822), whose advertisement in the St. Petersburg Gazette on 27 October 1803 described his pieces as 'in the ancient style and yielding nothing in quality to French articles' (I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscow, 2003, p. 95). The shared use of shallow relief figures of classically draped maidens, entwined snakes and intricately-cast and chased superimposed foliage used on necks and bases of vases has often been cited as a link between the two makers, suggesting that their workshops shared a special relationship (ibid. pp. 95-97). A related vase attributed to Bergenfeldt after a model by Galle was sold Christie's, London 21 November 2007, lot 102 (£144,500). However, the inclusion of the stamped letters SAY to an interior ring perhaps further suggest French manufacture, possibly from the same maker or retailer as a pair of figural candelabra with the same stamps offered Christie's, London, 22 September 2011, lot 133.