Provenance:

Christie's, South Kensington, Antiquities and Souvenirs of the Grand Tour, 27 October 1993, Lot 329

Bliss Hebert lived a life filled with music, beginning with his study of piano at age three. By five, he appeared in solo recitals, and when he grew older trained as a concert pianist in New York and Paris. He enjoyed an incredibly prolific and successful career, staging over three hundred productions of one hundred operas. A highlight of his career was his long collaboration with Igor Stravinsky, beginning with his direction of The Rake’s Progress at the Santa Fe Opera, where he was a founding member. Hebert also worked extensively with his husband, stage designer Allen Charles Klein, to create more than fifty opera productions. Hebert and Klein lived together in Miami, New York, and France. Freeman’s will present their collection across three auctions this Spring: The Collector’s Cabinet on March 11, European Furniture and Decorative Arts on April 23, and Interiors, Including the Estate of Bliss Edmund Hebert on May 8.

Note:

The design of this bronze stand is taken from the Pompeiian prototype in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Another example was manufactured for use at the baptism of the King of Rome in 1811.