A Pair of Late 19thC Neapolitan Bronze Mirror Stands c.1890

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Origin: Naples, Italy
Period: Late 19thC
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1890-1900
Height: 8.75”
Width: 4.5”
Depth: 4” (each and at extremities)

The finely cast pair of bronze mirror stands, after the antique, possibly by the Chiurazzi foundry, with a superb patination, each modelled as winged putti atop dolphins with octopus’ in their mouths, on clam shell bases, and surviving from the zeniths of the nineteenth century.

The condition of the stands is good overall with a healthy verdegris patination to the wholes and no losses. One of the putto is slightly loose to one side. They don’t appear to be marked in any way. There is also a possibility that these stands were once candlesticks.

Chiurazzi foundries were established by Gennaro Chiurazzi senior (1840), first apprentice and then worthy follower Pietro Masulli, the Neapolitan famous sculptor who first conceived and put in practice the idea of copying the ancient works of art in their splendour, drawing his inspiration from Cellini's method.  By doing this, art lovers could admire and obtain copies of the ancient works from Pompei, Ercolano, Rome and the famous Italian museums. The quality of the casting here suggests this foundry may well have created this pair.

Now making for beautiful tabletop elements; fine fragments of Naples and of Italian sensibility.
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