A FRENCH EMPIRE GILT BRONZE AND CUT CRYSTAL TEN-LIGHT CHANDELIER, CIRCA 1810

Ariane Dandois, Paris; illustrated in her 2000 catalogue

The basket form, elegantly chased bronze elements and high-quality crystal drops of the offered lot are typical of chandeliers produced by the Paris workshops of Chaumont during the Empire period, generally using crystal prism drops manufactured by the Mont-Cenis glassworks based in Le Creusot and headed by the entrepreneur and politician Benjamin-François Ladouèpe du Fougerais (1766-1821). The two firms collaborated on important Imperial commissions during the first decade of the 19th century, including several chandeliers supplied by Chaumont to Fontainebleau in 1809 (J.-P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris 19898, p.106-7 figs.71-73) and one delivered by Ladouèpe du Fougerais to the Petit Trianon in 1810 (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Versailles, le Petit Trianon. Le mobilier des inventaires de 1807, 1810 et 1839, Paris 1989 p.95, fig.61).