A very fine Empire gilt bronze and cut-glass eighteen-light chandelier, the circular corona with rosette mounts surmounted by palm-shaped finials suspending swagged cut-glass drops, above a ring of pendant drops and a cascade of drops to the panelled gilt ring with anthemion and rosette mounts, issuing nine branches with vase-shaped nozzles and circular drip-pans and nine foliate-wrapped and fluted scrolling branches suspending swagged drops and pendants, above rings of graduating tiered pendants terminating in a single cut-glass pendant Paris, date circa 1815 Height 130 cm, width 100 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 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). |