Silver & Teapot Vase

This is a really interesting vase made of a damaged mid 18thc entury teapot made by Meissen and silver mounts made by Cartier in Paris in the 19th century. The teapot has had the handle and spout removed and those areas are mostly hidden by the silver handles though you can still see them if you look for it. The porcelain part is superbly hand painted with scenes on either side of a shepherd couple and their goat in a landscape on one side and a shepherd family in a landscape on the other. Some flowers here and there and applied flowers where the spout and handle terminals were. The painting is in good condition but there is a bit of flaking in some spots to the paint as can be seen in the pictures. The silver mounts are incredible. I showed it to a friend of mine who used to do silver work for Tiffany's and he was impressed. The top is nicely done but the handles are just super fancy with leaves to the sides to hide the porcelain flaws. The scroll handle parts are hollow so that is not an easy feat to accomplish. The rest is all solid. The top and handles are attached together with two pins on each side which I tried to show. The foot is also quite nice with a laurel leaf garland going around the base of the circular fot that sits on the square base. Each handle is marked with the impressed minerva mark as shown. The underside has the Cartier Paris mark I found on other antique pieces that were mounted with silver. The entire peice weights over 2 pounds 10 ounces so rather heavy. Probably close to 2 pounds of silver in the piece. A truly superb looking vase and the silver and porcelain combo is just neat! In great condition except for the porcelain flaws already mentioned which is why it was made into the vase in the first place. It is 9.25 inches tall, 6.25 inches wide and 4.25 inches deep. Please email me for more information or other pictures.