A Pair Of Second Empire French Cast Iron Garden Urns

A very fine and unusual pair of Second Empire French cast iron garden urns attributed to Corneau Frères at Charleville, each classical vase-shaped urn with a gadrooned rim and adorned around its lower body with prominent lion head handles, the lions with open mouths issuing from an acanthus leaf at top and flanked by a frieze of laurel leaves and scrolls, on a spreading circular stepped foot upon a square base
Charleville, Ardennes, date circa 1860-70
Height 56 cm, width 50 cm. each.
With their distinctive, highly characterful lion heads, slightly squat classical outline and pronounced gadrooning, this pair of garden urns can be attributed to the French iron foundry Corneau Frères, comparing closely with other similarly shaped urns made by the firm that feature either ringed lion head or griffin head handles. The enterprise began in 1846 when Alfred-Henry Corneau (1825-86) and his younger brother Émile-Joseph Corneau (1826-1906) became business partners. By 1856 they had begun setting up a small foundry in the Petit-Bois district of Charleville-Mézières, and three years later in 1859 they officially launched the Corneau Frères foundry. Alfred and Émile were both born at Charleville-Mézières, an historic town in the Ardennes region of northeastern France, close to the Belgian border. They were the sons of Catherine Corneau née Renaux (c1784-1856) and Louis Henri Joseph Corneau (1786-1847), who earned his living by selling drinks.
The Corneau foundry emerged during a period of industrial expansion in France, when cast iron was being increasingly used for architecture, infrastructure and the decorative arts. At the same time the foundry’s location at Charleville, was well placed since this was in an area that had a strong tradition of metalworking and by the mid nineteenth century had access to the new and rapidly expanding railway network which helped facilitate the distribution of their products throughout France and beyond.
The Corneau Frères foundry soon gained renown for its high quality but affordable cast iron work, which combined utility with artistic flair, thus serving both a functional and ornamental purpose. In addition to urns, they produced a wide range of items to include balustrades, fountains, benches, hat and umbrella stands, grilles and gas lampposts, including a magnificent example, made for the Hôtel Cabrières-Sabatier d’Espeyran, at Montpellier which is now an annex of the Musée Fabre. They also became a significant manufacturer of cemetery crosses, funerary monuments, wayside crosses and street furniture. Many of these items were shown to great effect at the international exhibitions, including the Exposition Universelle in 1861, the Exposition des Beaux-Arts Appliqués á L’Industrie in 1863 as well as the Exposition Universelle of 1889, by which time the business was being run by two of Alfred’s sons-in-law.
Their urns were typically inspired by Greco-Roman designs, featuring acanthus leaves, floral garlands, mythological figures and animal motifs, all carefully rendered in iron through precision casting techniques. At the time, garden urns were becoming a feature within nineteenth century landscape design, favoured by both private estate owners and public authorities for their ability to lend a sense of elegance and permanence to outdoor spaces. Such urns were prized not just for their beauty, but for their strength and longevity, since cast iron ensured that they were highly resistant to weathering and thus could be left outdoors year-round without significant deterioration. The urns were produced in various sizes and styles and could be used as planters or simply as decorative elements in a formal garden. Many were also used in parks and other public spaces, especially during the urban renewal efforts of the Second Empire, when cities like Paris and Lyon were undergoing modernization on a grand scale.
On 4th February 1850, Émile married Émilie Renaux and then a year later on 6th November 1851, Alfred married Émilie Barbey (1823-1907) with whom he had three daughters, Juliette (1852-1916), Anna (1854-1935) and Marie-Sidonie (b. 1859). By 1870 Émile was increasingly focusing his attention away from the business and toward politics. In 1879 he was appointed mayor of Charleville, and the following year became a senator. At that stage he decided to leave his brother to run the business. Thereafter works produced by the foundry no longer bore the stamp of Corneau Frères but ‘Corneau Alfred. A Charleville’.
Émile’s departure did not diminish the quantity or quality of the firm’s production, which by 1890 was employing a workforce of about 300. Alfred also had the support of two of his sons-in-law, namely Albert Deville (1844-1913), who had married Alfred’s daughter Juliette in 1873 and secondly Henri-Joseph-Antoine Pailliette (b. 1853) who in 1880 married Alfred’s youngest daughter Marie-Sidonie. Both Albert Deville and Henri Pailliette established themselves at the foundry before taking over its management, working initially under the name Deville-Pailliette and subsequently Deville Charleville. It appears that Deville was the driving force and gradually refocused the foundry’s activities toward the manufacture of all-fuel domestic heating and cooking appliances, which gained a significant position in this market. These beautiful heaters still appear for sale and stand as testament to the elegance of industrial design. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Deville foundry underwent extensive expansion into the production of raw or enamelled cast iron ranging from wood stoves to funeral vases and garden furniture. And while there was a workforce of up to 1,800 employees at the beginning of the twentieth century, by 1942, the number had fallen to just over 200. As a result, it eventually closed with the original factory being converted into sheet metal workshops.