A pair of patinated and gilt bronze candelabra with Silenus and Bacchante, Louis XVI style, 19th century, after a design by François Rémond

each figure holding a cornucopia issuing eight candlearms, decorated with leaves, on a green marble cylindrical base with an ewer, panpipes and cymbals, on a later Louis XVI style painted wooden column

This lot is described on reference 142 in the valuation of the estate of the Prince Marc de Beauvau Craon, 5th Prince de Beauvau (1816 - 1883) in 1883 (French National Archives AN.MC/ET/L/1385). These candelabra were located in the grand salon of his house on 34 avenue Montaigne in Paris. Then, they can be found on photographs in the château d'Haroué in 1965.

D. Cooper, Trésors d'Art des Grandes Familles, Paris, 1965, Les Princes de Beauvau au château d'Haroué, 1962, p. 295 (illustrated in the grand salon).

The design for this model, maybe from the catalogue of the marchand mercier Daguerre, is housed in the Musée des arts Décoratifs in Paris (reproduced in H. Ottomeyer, P. Proschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p. 283, fig 4.14.4). Probably created around 1785 by François Rémond (1747-1812) using similar figures to those by Clodion, and stylistically updated by the same bronze artist at the beginning of the 19th century.

It was reproduced several times during Louis XVI's reign and then under the French Empire, and today we find copies in the Louvre (consult D. Alcouffe et al., Les bronzes d'ameublement du Louvre, Dijon, 2004, n ° 95, pp. 188-189), the Château of Fontainebleau (cf J.P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, n ° 131, pp. 153-154), and Buckingham Palace (consult H. Roberts, For the King's Pleasure, The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's Apartments at Windsor Castle, London, 2001, pp. 102-103 and 110).

The model continued to enjoy great popularity during the 19th century and was produced by merchants such as the Beurdeleys and Samson Wertheimer. The Rothschild collections of Waddesdon Manor have two pairs made in France or England during the 19th century (consult G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, London, 1974, No. 165, 688-689). A pair from the Beurdeley workshops was sold at Galerie Georges Petit on 6-9 May 1895, lot 95. Another pair was in the former Riahi collection, auctioned at Christie's in New York on 2 November 2000, lot 46. Finally, a pair which belonged to Robert de Balkany, was sold at Sotheby's in Paris on 20 September 2016, lot 113.