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the Getty Museum vase. In turn, these goats' heads are 1783, spent much time in Paris and became an intimate
almost identical to those found on a Sevres vase dated friend of Marie-Antoinette. At the outbreak of the French
1814 in the Wellington Museum at Apsley House, Lon- Revolution, she returned to her Polish estates at Lancut,
don.5 These last heads were modeled by Thomire, and and the vase descended through her family to Count
the surviving document shows that he was paid 85 francs Alfred, her great-great-grandson. While there is no docu-
for the work. By inference it is therefore possible to at- mentary evidence to prove that the vase was acquired at
tribute the mounts of the Getty vase to Thomire. the Revolutionary sales, it is certainly true that the prin-
cess's ties with France and its royal family were strong.6
The vase was acquired by Rosenberg and Stiebel It is therefore possible that the vase was once in French
from Count Alfred Potocki. It is reputed to have been royal possession.
bought at the Revolutionary sales by Princess Isabella
Lubormirska, who, after the death of her husband in
FIG. 2.1A
104 S T A N D I N G V A S E
