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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A superb pair of Empire gilt and patinated bronze eight-light candelabra attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire almost certainly after a design by Charles Percier, each with a central foliate wrapped candle branch with a vase-shaped nozzle and circular drip-pan surrounded by seven further scrolled and conformingly shaped candle branches issuing from a columnar ring above a tapering patinated columnar shaft cast with budding leaf motifs headed by gilt bronze acanthus leaves and terminated by a more elaborate ring of gilt bronze acanthus leaves on a splayed three-sided plinth headed at each corner by a ram’s head mask joined by abundant fruit swags below a mask head medallion above an anthemion and rosette apron and supported on lion paw feet on a stepped tripartite base Paris, date 1810-15 Height 117 cm. each. Literature: Olivier Lefeuel, “Percier et Fontaine” in “Connaissance des Arts”, Paris, 15th June 1954, no. 28, p. 35, illustrating a page from a set of designs by Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine for the Russian Tsar of work in the Louvre and Tuileries, showing a woman’s bedroom with a torchère, which as here has a columnar shaft supported on a very similarly shaped plinth decorated with similar mounts. Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 393, pl. 5.17.11, illustrating a comparable candelabrum but with a much simpler base by Pierre-Philippe Thomire and signed Thomire Paris of circa 1815. Pierre Arizzoli-Clémentel, “The Percier and Biennais Albums in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris”, in the “Burlington Magazine”, March 1998, p. 197, pl. 55, illustrating a design for a related candelabrum by Percier for the Empress Josèphine in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Not only is this magnificent pair of candelabra of great quality and unusually large size but they can be attributed to the preeminent fondeur-ciseleur Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), whose production included a number of similar candelabra which he often supplied to the Imperial palaces. Furthermore a pair of gilt bronze torchères, signed and dated Thomire 1811, feature very similar shafts with identical budding leaf motifs as do another unsigned pair in gilt and patinated bronze, both of which are at Château de Versailles (see Pierre Arizzoli-Clémantel and Jean-Pierre Samoyault, “Le Mobilier de Versailles: Chefs-d’Oeuvre de XIXe Siècle”, 2009, pp. 263 and 353 respectively). The candelabra were almost certainly made after a design by Napoleon’s chief architect Charles Percier (1764-1838), whose attribution stems from the drawings cited under literature. The design in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (which featured as plate 59 in the 1827 edition of Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine’s “Recueil de Décorations Intérieures”) is slightly more elaborate in that the candle branches are supported on winged deer and though the columnar shaft is of a more ornate design the foliate terminal at its base is very similar; furthermore the shaped plinth which bears close comparison is as here headed by ram’s heads. Interestingly Percier’s design for the plinth was itself inspired by an altar from the Borghese collections, now in the Musée du Louvre. Born into a family of ciseleurs, Thomire began working with the renowned bronziers Pierre Gouthière and Jean-Louis Prieur before opening his own workshop in 1776. Famed for his production of finely chased gilt bronze objets de luxe, a large quantity of which were commissioned by the royal household, Thomire frequently collaborated with marchand-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre and regularly supplied finely chased mounts to the leading ébénistes. Upon the death of Jean-Claude Duplessis – the artistic director of Sèvres in 1783, Thomire assumed the role of bronzier to the manufactory before being made ciseleur de l’Empereur by Napoléon in 1809. In 1823 Thomire relinquished control of his business to his sons-in-law who continued to trade until 1852. |