A Fine Pair of Louis XVI Style Four-Light Candelabra

Description

A Fine Pair of Louis XVI Style Patinated and Gilt-Bronze Four-Light Candelabra After the Model by François Rémond.

Each candelabra has a central stem in the form of a torch en flambeau with three scrolling acanthus reeded branches terminating in sphinx heads and palm-leaf candleholders. The arms seemingly tied to the stem piece by knotted gilt-bronze cords ending in tassels. The candelabra are issued from blue tole ovoid vases with fluted stems on square section Egyptian porphyry bases. Each vase is mounted with gilt-bronze female heads and foliate swags and encircled by putti friezes. The handles of each vase are in the form of patinated bronze satyr’s masks.

France, Circa 1870.

These candelabra are after the model attributed to the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond dated 1782-5 now in the Wallace Collection, London [F.134-5]. Peter Hughes, in his catalogue entry for the Wallace Candelabra, cites that the palm-leaf candleholders are of the same model as those on the celebrated Ostrich Candelabra supplied by Rémond in 1782 for the ‘cabinet turc’, the Comte d’Artois’ Turkish boudoir at Versailles, and that the candle branches conform to other known models of his work.

Many examples of Rémond’s work were commissioned by the marchand mercier Dominique Daguerre and it is possible that the Wallace Candelabra were such an order, with elements created by Rémond in collaboration with other fondeurs. A pair of candelabra of the same model are in the Huntington Collection (Object number 27.183) and related examples are at Fontainebleu and Waddesdon.

This famous model of candelabra remained fashionable into the nineteenth century and the present exquisite examples would have been made in Paris during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, during the Louis XVI revival augmented in the Second Empire. Indeed, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, founder of the Wallace Collection, was acquainted with the court of Emperor Napoleon III, and commissioned such contemporary replicas himself. Finished to the highest standard, with exquisite matte and burnished mercury gilding; these candelabra are almost indistinguishable from period examples and can be attributed to the finest bronziers of the mid-19th century, such as Jean-François Denière (1774-1866) and later Henry Dasson (1829-1896) and the Beurdeley family. A key indicator of their date is the use of Egyptian porphyry for the bases. This is typical of the bravado of late nineteenth century makers, who sought to outdo their forebears, by embellishing earlier designs with the incorporation even more precious materials.