Pair Of Meissen Style Figural Lidded Urns With Yellow Ground And Galante Scenes Appraisal

Pair of Meissen-Style Figural Lidded Urns with Yellow Ground and Galante Scenes

This is a pair of decorative porcelain lidded urns, crafted in a style heavily influenced by 18th-century Meissen or Dresden porcelain. Each urn features a vibrant canary yellow ground, which is a classic 'fond' color in European ceramics. The central decorative elements are hand-painted oval reserves framed in gilt scrollwork, depicting romantic 'fête galante' or pastoral scenes in the manner of Watteau, showing figures in 18th-century dress. A distinguishing feature of these vases is the high-relief figural handles, which are sculpted as classical warriors wearing feathered crested helmets with polychrome enameling. The lids are topped with stepped finials decorated with floral sprigs. The urns show evidence of age-related wear including minor losses to the gilded bands and potential old repairs to the delicate feathers of the helmets. The underside shows a blue crossed-swords style mark with a crown above, which may indicate a 19th-century German decorator such as Helena Wolfsohn or a similar studio emulating royal factory designs. The craftsmanship is of high quality, evidenced by the fine anatomical detail in the sculpted busts and the intricate lace-style gilding around the reserves. These likely date to the mid-to-late 19th century, approximately 1870-1890, and were designed as prestigious mantel garnitures for European domestic interiors.