This piece is unique in my collection. Antique bronze cassolettes and vases and urns and other “garnitures” come in pairs and are generally meant to flank a clock on the mantle. If you find a single, well, you may well have a good home for it, but I find them a bit hard to place unless they’ve been converted to a lamp, as often happens. This canister, though: it’s hard for me to imagine that it was once part of a pair (athough I’m certainly willing to be enlightened if anyone has any insights), and it appears more utilitarian than the norm for nineteenth-century fireplaces pieces. The space serving as the container is large relative to the total dimensions of the thing. Which isn’t to say, though, that it’s ordinaire: Barbedienne has, as usual, been sparing in its ornamentation, but such ornamentation as there is has been rendered with exquisite precision. (Compare Barbedienne’s decorative objects with other pieces from the latter half of the nineteenth century: Barbedienne is almost austere in its restraint when placed alongside the exuberant, Paris Opera-inflected output of most makers from the period.

The original interior sleeve and lid are present. (Please note the errant piece of bubble wrap under the edge of the lid in a couple of the pics. This isn’t a scratch or fault in any way.)

Measures: 275 x 155 x 155 mm.