Click image to toggle in-situ view
Pair of Napoleon III Mantle Cornets — Slate, Rouge Griotte & Cut Crystal
Napoleon III
Condition
Very good — original matched pair, glass flutes intact, bronze with warm aged patina, slate and marble bases clean with minor period wear consistent with age
A handsome matched pair of French Second Empire mantle cornets — the kind that traditionally flanked a slate pendule on a Parisian drawing-room chimneypiece. Each piece consists of a scallop-rim cut-crystal trumpet flute set in a gilt-bronze socle with a relief maiden-mask, mounted on a stepped plinth of noir Belge slate inlaid with fluted rouge griotte marble columns and matching roundels. A characteristic example of the dense, architectural opulence of Napoleon III decorative work (c. 1860–1880). Original pair — increasingly rare to find them still together.