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An outstanding pair of Louis XV gilt bronze two-light wall-lights attributed to Jacques Caffiéri, each with a pierced C-scroll, foliate and rocaille backplate issuing two deeply conforming S-scrolled pierced acanthus wrapped branches with asymmetric foliate cast drip-pans and foliate vase-shaped nozzles and a foliate and floral terminal
Paris, date circa 1745
Height 65 cm, width 40 cm. each.
Literature: Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 141, pl. 2.11.12, illustrating an almost identical wall-light dated circa 1745.
The quality of the casting and chasing of these wall-lights is exceptional and leaves one in no doubt they date from the mid 1740’s. They are also particularly unusual since, with the exception of the nozzles, each light is cast as a single piece. Given the complexity of their design and their size, their manufacture would have been extremely difficult; it was more usual for such objects to be cast as separate parts, which were subsequently fitted together by means of screws and rivets.
Neither this pair nor the almost identical example dated circa 1745, illustrated in Ottomeyer (see above) or indeed the majority of other comparable wall-lights of this date bear a maker’s stamp. However since their quality and overall design compares closely with a set of four wall-lights of circa 1750, attributed to Jacques Caffiéri (in the Getty Museum, California, illus. Ottomeyer, ibid. p. 2.11.10) these too, should be attributed to the same maker. The Getty wall-lights and another comparable pair attributed to Caffiéri, circa 1745, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, (Ottomeyer, ibid. p. 2.11.16) bear the respective stamps: C-RC and CR and a crown. This does not refer to the maker but to Palazzo di Colorno, the summer residence of the duc and duchesse of Parma. Louise-Elizabeth duchesse of Parma was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France. When she and her husband found that their summer and winter residences had been stripped of their furnishings she appealed to her father and subsequently returned to Italy with wagonloads of goods recently commissioned from French craftsmen. Among them were a number of high Rococo gilt bronze wall-lights by Jacques Caffiéri as well as two magnificent gilt bronze chandeliers, also by Caffiéri (now in the Wallace Collection, London).
While the Getty wall-lights have three lights, those in the Louvre have, as here, only two. All, like the present pair are composed of complicated intertwined asymmetrical spiralling stems and likewise have elaborate naturalistic drip-pans, designed in the high Rococo manner. In many respects the present pair are closer to those in the Getty, especially the occasionally pierced foliage yet the flowers are closer to those on the Louvre (the Getty models having roses).
The present wall-lights also bear a striking similarity with another pair in the Wrightsman Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York (illustrated in J. B. Watson, “The Wrightsman Collection”, 1966, pp. 406-7, no. 219 A and B). The latter differ only slightly, having no flowers, a more overt foliate backplate and more sober scrolled branches. The wall-lights also compare with another, illustrated in Ottomeyer, ibid. p. 141, pl. 2.11.11 of circa 1745, of a similar vigorous curvaceous design but of less delicacy. Very similar to the latter are two pairs in the Getty Museum and four further pairs at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, all composed of several component parts and considered to be late nineteenth century copies, primarily on account of the quality of their chasing. By contrast the present pair exhibit the finesse and delicacy associated with the eighteenth century and in particular with the hand of Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), who as one of the most important bronze casters during the reign of Louis XV was appointed fondeur-ciseleur des Bâtiments du Roi.
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