A pair of Dutch silver candlesticks, Willem Pont, Amsterdam, 1769

Willem Pont (1734-1797), was the son of the virtuous Amsterdam silversmith Jan Diederik Pont by his wife Maria van Rixtel. (see lot 10, 13 ,64). He entered his mark with the Guild of Amsterdam in 1755. Nine years later, still at his parent’s home in Rozenstraat, he married Adriana Spruytenburg in 1764. His father was too ill to attend before the commission of marital affairs at the moment of Willem’s registration of marital intent in 1763. He was unable to work as an independent silversmith. The fact that Willem resided at his parents’ home at that time, until his father’s death in 1767, might indicate that initially he worked in his father’s workshop. Although these candlesticks, now offered were made after his father’s death (1767), the c- and s-scrolls, upward swirling forms, rocailles and asymmetric leaves, typical of the Rococo style, bear great similarity in execution to those of his father’s hand. Willem Pont used this design probably for the first time in 1767, the year of his father’s death. Christie’s Amsterdam sold this pair of candlesticks, 24th May, 1995, lot 827. The decoration of flower heads, combined with foliage, was fashionable until circa 1775. However, the pair now offered, dated 1769, seems to be the only pair of openwork candlesticks in this style. In 1769, the same year, Pieter Bartholomeus van Linden, silversmith in Amsterdam, manufactured an almost similar pair, without the openwork base and stem. This pair, applied with four leave supports, was in the collection of J. Fijnaut, Amsterdam, 1993. Christie’s New York, 23 oktober 2000, lot 389 sold a pair of candlesticks by the famous 19th century silversmith Paul Storr, London. In 1835, he manufactured the pair of candlesticks, which can be linked to the 1769 candlesticks by Willem Pont. The base and stem of Storr’s candlesticks are decorated with almost the same flowerheads, foliage and the knob of the stem. This might indicate that Storr was familiar with the design of Willem Ponts´candlesticks.