Pair of Perfume Burners in Gilt and Patinated Bronze in the Empire Style, in the Style of Claude Galle, 19th Century

Each perfume burner features a hemispherical cassolette in brown patinated bronze, girded with a gilt gadrooned frieze, closed by a lid openworked with scrollwork letting the perfumed smoke escape and surmounted by a pinecone seed. The bowl is carried by three fluted gilt gaine uprights with lion-head capitals, joined by patinated bronze crossbars around a central fluted torch. The whole rests on a moulded circular base with small claw feet.

This athénienne architecture, playing on the contrast between matt gilt bronze and patinated bronze, belongs to the purest Empire taste and allows the pair to be stylistically linked to the work of Claude Galle (1759–1815), one of the greatest bronze-casters of the First Empire, supplier to the imperial Garde-Meuble, whose models were taken up in the 19th century.

Condition report: Good general condition. Gilding and brown patina well preserved, crisp chasing, openwork lids intact. A pair of cabinet pieces of great quality, of the finest effect on a fireplace, a console or in a library.