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A fine and large pair of Louis XVI gilt and patinated bronze and rouge griotte marble three-light figural candelabra, each with gilt bronze floral candleholders issuing from spiralling foliate-wrapped branches further ornamented with stiff leaves, flower buds and carnation heads, held by a patinated bronze classical maiden, each female beauty in a reverse pose with one hand held high, the other supporting the branch below and having one foot in front of the other, her drapery looped around her shoulder to reveal a naked torso, standing upon a thin circular gilt bronze base on a circular rouge griotte marble plinth with concave sides ornamented with ribbon-tied laurel leaf swags above a twisted gilt border
Paris, date circa 1780
Height 98.5 cm, width 34 cm, diameter of base 20 cm. each.
With their strident pose, scantily clad loose flowing drapery and abundant floral and foliate-wrapped candle branches, these large and imposing candelabra compare stylistically with a number of others made in Paris during the reign of Louis XVI. In particular one can compare the overall design with a drawing for a candelabrum of circa 1785 now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (illustrated in Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 283, pl. 4.14.4), which was almost certainly executed in the rue St Honoré atelier of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. Given the highly finished nature of the drawing one can assume that it was probably made to be shown to prospective clients rather than as a working design for the bronzier.
The treatment of the model and her stance can also be compared to a candelabrum with a Bacchic female figure executed after a sculpture by Jean-Joseph Foucou (1739-1815) (Musée du Louvre, Paris, illustrated in Ottomeyer, ibid. p. 283, pl. 4.14.7). Further comparisons can be drawn between these candelabra and another pure gilt bronze pair circa 1780-90 in the Waddesdon Collection, Buckinghamshire; although the latter feature nude females kneeling on clouds with attributes of love, they like these include abundant flowers around the candle branches (illustrated in Geoffrey de Bellaigue, “The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor”, 1974, pp. 690-1).
Similar candelabra were made in the nineteenth century after eighteenth century models, of which there are two pairs made circa 1860 in the Wallace Collection London, illustrated in Peter Hughes, “The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture”, 1996, vol. III, nos. 150-1 and F162-3, illustrated respectively pp. 1307 and 1309).
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