Pair French Baccarat Pink Opaline & Ormolu Vases, Exposition Universelle 1876

Description

Pair of French Baccarat Pink Opaline Ormolu-Mounted Vases Hand Painted with Birds and Flowers, Exposition Universelle 1876 The upper portions of the vases are decorated with polychrome enamel-painted floral sprays and songbirds on a pink opaline ground. The painting is rendered directly onto the glass surface and includes various birds perched or in flight among white daisies, pink blossoms, and yellow wildflowers. Each bird is distinctly colored and anatomically detailed, with fine brushwork visible in the feathers and foliage. This type of naturalistic bird and flower motif, executed in enamel, was often commissioned for high-profile displays and collectors. The style and execution correspond with Baccarat’s documented decorative glass output shown at major international exhibitions, including the 1867 Paris Exposition. Each vase is formed with a wide trumpet mouth atop a rounded lower body, supported by a narrow fluted neck and circular foot. The body is mounted with gilt bronze scroll-form handles terminating in leaf-wrapped clasps, secured to the sides of the bowl. A raised beaded band encircles the neck above a stylized acanthus and festooned white enamel design on a deep rose ground. The spreading foot features vertical white enamel striping with alternating dot-and-line decoration, rising from an ormolu-mounted base with four rocaille scroll feet. The gilt mounts are cast with scrolls and foliate forms in high relief. This pair of vases was produced by the Baccarat manufactory in France and is dated “6 Octobre 76” on the underside of one base, indicating a completion date of October 6, 1876. The vases were created in anticipation of the Exposition Universelle of 1876 in Paris, an event for which Baccarat regularly produced exhibition-quality pieces. These vases are unsigned, as was typical for Baccarat’s opaline works during the mid-19th century, but they are consistent in form, palette, and decoration with other known Baccarat examples from this period. The pink opaline glass is characteristic of Baccarat’s output and closely relates to items documented in the firm’s archival catalogs.

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