Pair of Vases (Pair 6/97)

Increased trade with China in the 1700s brought an influx of Chinese and other Asian goods into the European market. It also resulted in a new fascination with Chinese culture by European collectors. Though the French were interested in acquiring Asian porcelain, they still preferred a French decorative style. In response, craftsmen took porcelain from China and added French-made gilt bronze decorative elements to them, a process called mounting. This process permanently altered the form of these ceramics, conforming them to French taste. Mounted Chinese porcelain remained fashionable throughout the 1700s. These vases are an example of this cultural exchange, as well as a reminder of the appropriation and often misunderstanding of Chinese culture happening in this period.

The decorative elements on these mounts look very similar to those on some other mounted ceramics, presumably all made by a single unknown bronzier (bronze caster). Most stand on pedestals adorned with leaves, have vines draped across their upper bodies, and include mythological figures. Though the common decorative motifs span the various objects, the individual mounts rarely look exactly the same. For example, these vases feature infant satyrs (half-human, half-goat figures), the only ones known from this bronzier.