A large pair of Louis XVI style ormolu three-light bras de lumière late 19th century

each with a lyre-shaped backplate cast with a fleur de lys flanked by treble clefs and fitted with curved leaf-cast candle branches, the upper part cast with rooster heads above floral wreaths, flanked by crossed laurel branches, the lower part fitted with a lion's mask and oak leaf clusters, the whole suspended from a bow-knotted ribbon. Each originally with five lights and bearing a stamp with a fleur de lys and the letters TH. 

Collection of Michael Behrens, Esq., sold by his executors, Christie's, London, June 14, 1990, lot 58

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 22, 1997, lot 129

These wall lights were, at one time, fitted with two additional candle branches which emerged from the top of the lyre between the rooster heads.  With five branches, they appear to quite closely correspond to a set of eight wall lights which were described in an inventory taken in the apartments of the duc d’Angoulême in the Tuileries in 1826: 

Salon de reception.  1544.  Huit girandoles à cinq lumières (sic) en bronze cizelé et doré or moulu, lyre, feuilles de chêne, glands, mufles de lion, guirlandes de lauriers, croisées a rubans.  Haut 1,30 … 3000.  

What appear to be the same set of eight wall lights were inventoried again in 1833, the room now identified as the appartement du roi, Louis Philippe rez-de-chaussée sur la cour …Salon d’audience …81..  Huit grands bras en bronze doré a 5 lumières chaque, forme de lyre avec têtes de lion, branches de laurier, guirlandes de feuille de chêne et ruban, l’un à 400.  3200. 

The last inventory taken of the Tuileries before it was eventually sacked, again describes this set of wall lights, in the same room, now used as Napoleon III’s dining room:  313.  Huit bras, bronze cizelé et doré, style Louis XVI, à 5 lumières sur 2 gradations, forme de lyre, orné de lauriers et de guirlandes de fruits, terminée par une tête de lion et chute de feuilles de chêne; branches à feuilles d’acanthe et basin cannelé. Hr. 1m30c. 

The latter description conforms remarkably closely to that of the present wall lights and may very well be the model on which they were based.  Two pairs of wall lights of this model, with five branches and other small differences, also stamped TH with fleur de lys are in a European private collection.  The stamp was an inventory mark for the Palais des Tuileries used circa 1820 during the reign of Louis XVIII.