Pair of porphyry potpourris, Rome circa 1800-1810

Rare pair of potpourris in imperial purple porphyry from Egypt and finely chiseled bronze gilded with
mercury.
The square porphyry pedestals are surmounted by bronze pedestals with radiant decoration bordered by
heart-rays.
They support palmette bases that hold the ovoid porphyry bodies. The latter are embellished with two
lateral mascarons decorated with women's heads wearing laurel leaves in a frame of acanthus scrolls.
The rim of each body is encircled by a double neckline in bronze finely openworked with a circular frieze
framed by two friezes of pearls.
Above, small porphyry domes ending in gripping sockets in the shape of seed pellets act as plugs. The
interior of the porphyry bodies are hollowed out and lined with small gilded metal compartments.

Very nice to preserve, original mercury gilding with double patina and shiny.

Roman work from the Neoclassical period around 1800-1820.

Size:

Height: 27 cm

Our opinion:

The height of the refinement of the neoclassical period, the perfume burner became fashionable with the
rediscovery of great ancient sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, whose Roman villas were decorated
with frescoes, or vestals feeding the sacred fire with a pinch of incense.
In order to imitate this idealized antiquity, very beautiful incense burners will be made of bronze, marble
or hard stone.
Our example is made of purple porphyry from Egypt, the mythical stone of the pharaohs exported by the
Romans and intended only for the imperial cult.
The latter, who thought that this stone was the fossilized blood of the gods, brought large quantities to
Rome, to the point of drying up the Egyptian career.
From the end of antiquity, this precious material was sought after to be reused by the best craftsmen.
Over the centuries and reuse, the size of objects decreases considerably, from monumental columns to
smaller sculptures, then to small objects and finally to tiny mosaics, making the scarcity of the material
inevitable.
If porphyry was always highly prized because of the grandiose memory of the Roman Empire, it
experienced a revival of interest at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the rediscovery of ancient
Egypt by Bonaparte's troops.
The advent of the French empire and its extension to the European continent led to a growing demand for
this material, which symbolized imperial power. New quarries were discovered and exploited in Sweden,
but the Egyptian variety, with its purple color and mythical history, remained the most sought-after.
Our potpourris, which combines the know-how of a master lapidary and a master bronzesmith, perfectly
represent this luxurious production.