A pair of gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese blue and white porcelain cachepots the mounts Régence, early 18th century, the porcelain Kangxi (1622-1722) - Photo Sotheby's

each with flowers and scrollwork decoration, the gilt-bronze reeded rim above a hinge with a lion mask on each side with a ring in its jaws above a tapering pierced Berainesque style mount terminating in a fleur de lys ; the porcelain with minor firing defects; each 18cm. high, 24cm. diameter; 7in., 9½in. Estimation: 18,000 - 25,000 GBP

Comparative Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, Objets Montés du Moyen Age à Nos Jours, Paris, 2000, p. 34, for a blue and white Chinese porcelain vase with identical lion mask mounts (Galerie Gismondi, Paris).

The gilt-bronze mounts on these vases, with the lion masks with rings in their jaws above Berainesque style mounts, are typical of the Louis XIV and Régence period. Similar mounted vases can be found in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, see C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts of the Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, pp. 149-150.

Parisian marchands-merciers in the 18th century traded in luxury objects `objets d'art', such as these, often buying the Oriental porcelain and modifying it by for example cutting them before being mounted. 

Also see the Collection Leon Lévy, Important Mobilier et Objets d'Art, Sotheby's, Paris, 2nd October 2008, lot 15, for a pair of blue and white Kangxi porcelain vases and covers with identical side mounts. 

See a pair of Chinese porcelain vases with identical mounts, sold Sotheby's, New York, 20th November 1993, lot 90($65,000). Another cache-pot with comparable mounts was in the Laura collection and sold Sotheby's, Paris, 27th June 2001, lot 24. 

A related Chinese blue and white porcelain vase was sold Magnificent French Furniture and Works of Art, Christie's, London, 12th December 2002, lot 27 (£47,800).

Sotheby's. Arts of Europe. London | 04 déc. 2012 www.sothebys.com