Pair of perfume burners

Each is in the form of a flattened lidded container of gilt bronze supported on the heads of a pair of female fauns facing away from one another. They are seated on a smaller urn-shaped plinth set on a rectangular base. The fluted container is mounted with scrolls and beading in the fully neo-classical style and it is probable that originally there was some sort of pierced band between the lid and the body. This would have enabled these pieces to be used as perfume burners. In such a case, a pleasing aroma would be generated by a miniature stove or spirit lamp set into the receptacle over which pastilles or sweet-smelling essences were heated. The plinth is elaborately decorated with a pinecone finial and a flared, fluted and flattened base adorned with heavy swags and pendants of fruit and flowers.

Possibly made by the great sculptor and bronze worker Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843), the contrast of patinated bronze with gilt bronze is particularly noteworthy.