These cast iron urns is modelled on a white marble urn from antiquity, signed by the sculptor Sosibios, a Greek artist probably working in Rome in around 50 BC; it was later in the collection of Louis XIV at Versailles, and is now in the Louvre (MR 987). This celebrated work was much copied in the 19th century; the vase is illustrated in Henry Moses, A Collection of Antique Vases, published in 1814, and the Sèvres porcelain manufactory produced a biscuit version in 1824. A design for its production in cast iron seemingly first appears in the 1858 catalogue Barbezat & Cie Ancienne Maison André, Hauts Fourneaux . Fonderies du Val d'Osne. The Barbezat range was available to English clients from Carlhain and Corbiere, of 68 Cannon Street, St Paul's, London. An English version of the model was later in the 1874 catalogue of A. Handyside and Co. of Derby and London.
There are examples at Myddelton House, Enfield (L. Weaver, English Leadwork, Its Art & History, London 1909, p. 201). A set of four painted cast-iron urns of this model sold at Christie's Wrotham Park, 4 June 1991 lot 120. Another pair was offered Christie’s, South Kensington, 9 April 2003, lot 178.