ATTRIBUTED TO ÉDOUARD LIÈVRE (1828-1886), AND FERDINAND BARBEDIENNE (1810-1892), PAIR OF VASES, CIRCA 1880 Scroll-shaped lacquered bamboo vases with sinister gold and silver hiramaki-e decoration, ormolu and patina; the body decorated, on one, with a weaver in front of his loom in a lively country village and on the other, with a figure picking fruit from a tree in a lakeside village landscape, also lively. It is mounted with two rectangular salamander-shouldered handles with a falling fish tail; the base with four harnessed elephant heads with a scrolled trunk centred on chimera heads on a cloud, the neck with a concave band underlined by two openwork gallery borders; inside a bowl. (Damage and missing parts) A pair of vases, attributed to Édouard Lièvre and Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892), circa 1880 Diam. 37 CM - D. 14,6 IN. HAUT. 56 CM - H. 22 IN. Born in Nancy in 1828, Édouard Lièvre trained as a painter with the French academic painter Thomas Couture, before devoting himself to decorative art drawing. Édouard Lièvre then drew for the great bronzemaker Ferdinand Barbedienne, with whom he worked for many years. Édouard Lièvre's important clients included the actress Sarah Bernhardt, the courtesan Louise-Émilie Valtesse de la Bigne and Albert Vieillard, director of the Bordeaux ceramics factory. After Lièvre's death, his estate was sold at two auctions in 1887 and 1890. It is thought that most of the collection was sold to George and Henri Pannier, owners of the Escalier de Cristal company, which produced modified versions of the artist's drawings. There are, for example, seven variants of Albert Vieillard's Cabinet japonais, one of which was sold to Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia and is now in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.