Stock No: 16556

A rare pair of large cast iron Handyside urns after the the Medici Vase. These urns were manufactured by the renowned Andrew Handyside & Co Foundry, and as illustrated in the catalogue, are a near pair, with a different subject to the bas-relief friezes. The right is a faithful copy to the original Medici Vase, now on display at the Uffizi in Florence. Both are mounted on their original pedestals.

English, c.1851.

Notes: The Handyside Foundry exhibited this model at the Great Exhibition of 1851, as it was, and still remains, one of the most popular subjects from antiquity.

Having returned from his uncle's engineering business in Russia, the young engineer Andrew Handyside took over the Britannia iron works in Derby in 1848, a foundry that was known for the quality of its casting, owing to the fine sand that could be found in the region. He made a wide range of materials in cast iron, from garden ornaments, to iron buildings and bridges.

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