Description

To be executed in gilt bronze

With hooped arms to the lights extending from a banded orb sporting a central light, the columnar support descending to a spreading foliate calyx on a base composed of three naked addorsed infants interspersed with dolphins 28in. high

The group of three putti forming the base of the candelabrum in this design is similar to designs from Louis XVI's reign by Jean-Louis Prieur (1725-85) and also by Alexandre-Theodore Brogniart, father of Alexandre Brogniart, the director of the Sevres porcelain manufactory during the Restauration the relationship to the Prieur drawings see P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, London, 1996, III, 1219-1222, cat. #239. However, as Sevres was noted for its production of porcelain mounted ormolu clocks under the restored Bourbons, Brogniart pere would seem the more likely link. As a dolphin was commonly associated in French iconography with the heir to the throne (the Dauphin, trans. Dolphin), the combination of infants and dolphins may be taken to refer to the infant duc de Bordeaux, the posthumously born heir presumptive to the throne of France (see above, p. XXX and note to cat. #41).

A pair of "late Empire" candelabra with a related group of three infants as the central support were sold at Christie's London, June 23, 1999, lot 9.

Medium

Watercolour, gouache and pen and ink, on laid paper

Dimensions:

50.30mm wide   76.70mm high (1.98 inches wide  3.02 inches high)

Status

FOR SALE