A very fine pair of Louis XVI gilt bronze candlesticks, each with a circular beaded and stiff-leaf drip-pan above a husk trailed fluted vase-shaped socket emerging from an acanthus cup on a tapering panelled stem cast with stylized flowers and foliage within the reserves above a band of acanthus leaves on a circular spreading foot again cast with acanthus leaves and edged with beaded and stiff-leaf borders, bearing a feint inscription to the reverse Paris, date circa 1775 Height without the drip-pan 27,5 cm. each. Provenance: Acquired in New York, 1946 and thence by descent until very recent years. These distinguished candlesticks epitomise the Neo-classical style and can be loosely compared to a set of four candlesticks of similar height and overall design in the Wrightsman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in F. J. B. Watson, “The Wrightsman Collection”, 1966, vol. II, p. 341, no. 172 A-D. |