Pair of mounted jars

This pair of jars combines some of the best features of the decorative arts of eighteenth-century China and Europe. The elaborate gilded bronze mounts, which show dragons, were finely sculpted, cast and gilded in France, likely during the reign of Louis XV (1710–1774). At the time, imported porcelain was often mounted with extravagant gilt-bronze settings, which adopted the stylistic vocabulary and fantastic forms of French rococo, while also making unfamiliar Chinese forms more useable in European interiors. Merchants called marchands-merciers, who specialised in marketing luxury objects, facilitated the addition of such mounts to porcelain, drawing on extensive networks of silversmiths, craftsmen and decorators.