Reflecting the royal and princely taste for imperial porphyry and luxurious gilt-bronze, this vase is exquisitely carved with acanthus leaves and mounted with lion handles, symbols long associated with royalty. The porphyry was most probably carved in Rome where the majority of the supply of porphyry was to be found in the ruins of ancient imperial buildings and edifices and where the highly skilled and technical cutters and polishers of the stone were based.

After its completion, the vase was likely destined for France where devotees of Roman porphyry were led by the Cardinal Mazarin and Louis XIV himself. Acquisitions of porphyry objects like the present lot were made for the King and his court through the abbé Elpidio Benedetti (c.1610-1690), originally Roman agent for Cardinal Mazarin and subsequently that of the King upon the Cardinal's death in 1661. The ormolu mounts dating to the Louis XV period confirm the enduring importance and prestige of porphyry in France throughout the 18th century as well as the development of French taste for gilt-bronze or ormolu which, like porphyry had for Rome, became one of its most celebrated accomplishments.

Not only was the French court keen amateurs of such luxurious porphyry objets d'art but so was the Spanish aristocracy. This engouement is reflected in the fact that the present vase most probably derives from a design for a shallower and wider acanthus-carved porphyry example destined for the Marchese del Carpio (d.1687) and forming part of his important collection of objets d'art. Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, marchese de Liche e del Carpio ranked amongst the most important Spanish collectors of the 17th Century and is recorded to have assembled a selected group of porphyry objects. Both the vase, now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, and the design after which it was made are illustrated by A. González-Palacios in Arredi e Ornamenti alla Corte di Roma, 1560-1795, (Milan, 2004, p.114).