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An extremely fine and beautiful Empire gilt bronze and cut-glass thirty six-light chandelier, the circular corona with palmetted mounts surmounted by palm-shaped finials suspending pendant glass drops and strings of drops above a ring of pendant drops and a central gilt column enclosed by a cascade of drops to the panelled gilt ring with acanthus and rosette mounts, issuing foliate-capped candle branches with foliate nozzles and surmounted by a band of palmettes and fluted pilasters mounted with further candle nozzles, the pendant cut-glass basket base supported by six foliate ribs terminating in a foliate cast boss
Paris, date circa 1820-30
Height 173 cm, diameter 127 cm.
Typical of the Empire style, this wonderful chandelier compares closely with another with thirty lights delivered by Jean-François Chaumont, 1813 for the Palais de Monte-Cavallo, now in the Salon de famille du roi Louis-Philippe in the Grand Trianon, Paris. It can also be compared to another but slightly simpler eighteen-light chandelier delivered in April 1810 by Ladouèpe de Fougerais, proprietor of the Cristallerie de Montcenis for the cabinet de L’Empereur, Musée du Château de Versailles, Grand Trianon, (illustrated in Léon de Groër, “Les Arts Décoratifs de 1790 à 1850”, 1985, p. 257, pl. 480).
The present work of art was once owned by Ariane Dandois, who was among the world’s foremost antique dealers. Until its recent closure her Paris gallery in rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré was famed for the diversity of its contents as well as the superb quality of her stock which in turn reflected her refined taste and eye for beauty. Of European and Imperial Russian descent, Ariane Dandois first studied at the Louvre before opening her Paris gallery in 1973. Since then she built up a formidable collection that reflected her diverse tastes to include not only French but also Russian, Italian, German and Swedish chandeliers, a gilt bronze mounted mahogany secrétaire that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon as well as other European and Oriental furniture, objet’s d’art and paintings.
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