With premises in Paris at 137, rue Vieille-du-Temple, the fondeur, G. Servant specialized in Greek and Egyptian Revival pieces and was a medalist at the major international exhibitions between 1867 and 1887.
A description of Servant's display at the 1867 exhibition is discussed in both Jules Mesnard's, Les Merveilles de l'Exposition de 1867, Paris, 1867, pp. 167-168, and in The Art Journal Catalogue of the Paris Universelle Exposition of 1867, London, 1867, pp. 20 & 116; in the latter, a table with a closely related pedestal to the present example. The observer notes of the bronze pedestal, "it is in a class of Art manufacture that M. Servant principally excels". The model was exhibited again as part of the French collective exhibit at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, and is illustrated in Edward Strahan's Illustrated Catalogue of The Masterpieces of the International Exhibition 1876, Gebbie & Barrie, Philadelphia, 1876, p. 393. An example of that model, similar to the present lot, was sold Christie's, New York, 21 April 2005, lot 51.