A fine and rare set of four Russian neoclassical ormolu, blue glass, cut-glass and white marble four-light girandoles late 18th century

each with baluster-shaped blue glass vasiform central section fitted with ormolu beading, laurel leaves and leaf tips, with four angular ormolu candle branches fitted with cut-glass flowerheads linked by faceted cut-glass drops, surmounted by four graduated ormolu tiers fitted with cut-glass flowerheads and hung with faceted tear drop pendants, the whole raised on a stepped circular white marble base outlined with ormolu beading above ball feet. Each formerly with two additional candle branches.

The Counts Potocki, Lancut Castle, Poland

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, November 17, 1984, lot 113

Illustrated in situ in the ballroom at Lancut Castle, (Krzysztof Jablonski, Zamek w Lancucie, Warsaw, 1991, p. 32, pl. 13). 

In the photograph cited above, the girandoles can be seen placed upon pale grey marble pedestals, and they appear to be part of a much larger set.  Today the ballroom retains the marble pedestals, now surmounted by campana shaped urns (Jablonski, op. cit. pl. 94, pp. 116-117). 

The town and castle of Lancut is in the Carpathian foothills and was located on an old trade route.  The people of Lancut built a defensive manor house in 1350 which provided the foundation for a fortress which would become an enormous castle enlarged and improved by the Lubomirski family between 1628-1816.   In the late 18th century it was transformed into a palatial repository of great works of art under the guidance of the collector and connoisseur, Stanislas Lubormirski and his wife Isabelle Czartoryska.  They were helped in this endeavor by  Vincenzo Brenna who had been the co-architect of Pavlovsk Palace.  Records indicate that vast quantities of marbles were purchased in Rome, and furniture in Paris.  Lancut was inherited by their grandson, Count Alfred Potocki who had ties to all of Europe's aristocracy. 

Count Alfred III Potocki remained with the collection during the occupation of Poland in World War II, even when Germany army staff were stationed in the castle.  In 1944, when the outcome of the war had become inevitable, he removed some 600 cases containing his most valuable paintings, porcelain and furniture to Vienna.  Eventually moving on to Paris and to New York, the collection has gradually been dispersed including a number of pieces which have appeared on the international auction market.  The grand interiors installed by the previous owners of Lancut remain more or less intact today.