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A very fine pair of Louis XV style gilt bronze candlesticks after a design attributed to Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, each with a hexagonal candleholder with palm leaf rim above an asymmetrical twisting baluster stem incorporating three half-length infants naked to the waist and terminating in foliate scrolls, the infants seemingly supporting the candleholder and seated on top of three twisted ribs framing three cartouches, the infants holding double ribbons from which suspend the three cartouches cast with emblems of the sun, one with a rose surrounded by the sun rays, another with a phoenix soaring to the sun with flames above and the third showing the sun shining onto a sundial, each with a stepped circular and shaped base with spiralled fluted shaped panels ornamented at three points by a shell above an acanthus cast border
Paris, date circa 1845
Height 32 cm, diameter of base 19 cm. each
Literature: Peter Hughes, “The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture”, 1996, vol. III, pp. 1295-1300, nos. 259, F 74 and 75, with a description and illustrations of two almost identical candlesticks in the Wallace Collection, London.
The present pair of candlesticks is almost identical to a pair in the Wallace Collection, London, except that the latter have additional hexagonal-shaped scones, measure 35.5 cm in height (though the diameter of the bases is as here) and bear a Latin inscription: NEC PLURIBUS IMPAR within one of the cartouches. Peter Hughes’s commentary on the Wallace pair concludes that they are of nineteenth century origin since as here they are made from a single casting. In contrast eighteenth century models would have been made from three castings, one for the stem and two for the base. He however argues (based on views by P. Fuhring) that the design can be attributed to the great Rococo designer Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695-1750). Among similarities is a toilette mirror engraved in Meissonnier’s “Oeuvre”, undated no. 71 which shows at the top similar infants ending in foliate terminals. Meissonnier’s publication also illustrates design engravings (nos. 10-12) for a silver candlestick of 1728 with a similar base; furthermore the model relates to a pen and ink design (Bibliothèque Nationale Paris) attributed to Meissonnier by Fuhring, which although lacking infants compares very closely.
In addition to the pair at the Wallace Collection Peter Hughes lists a number of other similar or near identical candlesticks, some with and others without scones and of slightly varying sizes. They include a pair from the Patino Collection sale (Sotheby’s New York 1st Nov 1986 lot 15) bearing the inscription HINC PURAE SEMINA FLAMMAE, measuring 35.5 cm and without sconces. It is possible that they were the original models from which the Wallace and present pair was cast. A similar pair without sconces with the same inscription measuring 34.8 cm is in the Gulbenkian Collection, Lisbon. Fuhring associates the inscription on the Patino pair with the birth of dauphin, son of Louis XV and Maria Leczinska, September 1729.
Other examples of the model have appeared on the market within the past century. They include one pair (Christie’s May 1955) that had emblems of the sun although the catalogue did not mention the Latin inscription. Pairs were also sold at Christie’s June 1964 and December 1986 as well as at Sotheby’s November 1988 and June 1990 bearing musical, scientific and martial trophies. In contrast a pair was sold in Monaco December 1993 bearing military and hunting trophies and architectural attributes. Those with sconces measured 30 cm and those without 29 cm. Fuhring suggests that the pair sold in 1990 was of nineteenth century origin. A similar pair with blank cartouches was sold in Monaco May 1978. Among other nineteenth century candlesticks was a pair signed Dasson 1888 with scones measuring 36.5 cm (sold Hôtel Drouot Paris July 1990).
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