Mounted Vase

With their glittering gilt-bronze mounts and costly Sèvres porcelain, these decorative vases are examples of the type of unusual and expensive goods retailed by specialist dealers in 18th-century Paris. Inside each vase is a gilt-bronze candelabrum on a short stem that rises when the lid is lifted, making the vase a functional objet de luxe. The fact that several versions of these vases were acquired by royal and noble patrons likely enhanced their attraction for the Huntingtons.