Penrose Antiques

Description

We are very pleased to be able to offer this unusual 19th century gilded bronze champlevé bonbon dish.

The dish is a fine example of the sort of objets d'art that were produced for the growing needs of a French population who were starting to seek luxury in their lives during the mid to later part of the 19th century. This particular example takes the form of a quite beautifully crafted bonbon dish in the form of a stylized bronze champlevé butterfly perched on an ornate arrangement of a twig extending from a number of gilded bronze leaves. The design of the butterfly itself is typical of the creativeness of French artisans of the day and consists of symmetrical colorful floral champlevé enamel designs denoting the body of the butterfly and asymmetrical champlevé floral enamel designs extending to the stylized wings. What is particularly striking about this example is the avoidance of enameling by the artisan in places to accentuate the truly lovely and very striking design.

This delightful bonbon dish is approximately 3 ½ inches high and the bowl is 7 ½ inches wide from stylized wing tip to stylizes wing tip. It is in a very good condition, the enamels are all intact, although there is some wear to gilding in places. There is also some oxidation of the bronze, particularly the leaves and the twig giving the bonbon dish a truly lovely patina.