Cathedral spires and allegorical figures

As a boy, our narrator is fascinated by the stock certificates he sees for the first time when his father pulls some out of a desk drawer.

"The sight of them enchanted me. They were ornamented with cathedral spires and allegorical figures, like some of the old romantic editions that I had pored over as a child...The artists who illustrate the poetry of their generation are the same artists who are employed by the big financial houses. And nothing reminds me more strongly of the instalments (sic) of Notre-Dame de Paris and of various works of Gérard de Nerval...than does, in its rectangular and flowery border, supported by recumbent river-gods, a registered share in the Water Company."