A Pair of Queen Anne Large Silver Table Candlesticks with Two-light Branches to Fit, Pierre Platel, London, 1712

on square bases with incurved angles, conforming baluster stems and campana sconces, all chased with Louis IV ornament, strapwork and shells on matted panels, the wells engraved with arms and supporters, marked on bases; the two-light branches chased with strapwork and masks terminating in female busts with turned heads below spirally-fluted drip-pans engraved with later crests and coronets, and sconces matching the stems, screw-in flame finials possibly later, the branches unmarked

traces of gilding, detail worn throughout, one stem repaired below middle section, finials with modern threads, one branch repaired where head joins drip-pan
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The arms are those of Caulfeild, probably for William, 2nd Viscount Charlemont, 1671-1729.  Taking part against James II, he was attainted 7 May 1689 by Parliament but was soon restored under William III who made him governor of Fort Charlemont and Custos Rotulorum of counties Tyrone and Armagh.  He took his seat in the House of Lords (Ireland) 5 October 1692, was admitted to the King's Inns, Dublin, 9 June 1697, Colonel of the 36th Foot 1701-06, served in Spain in 1705, Brigadier General 1705, Major General 1708, P.C. (Ireland) 5 June 1726.  He married in 1678 Anne daughter of James Margetson, Archbishop of Armagh, by Anne, sister of Thomas Bennett. 

The crests on the branches are probably those of his distinguished grandson, James, 1st Earl of Charlemont, who commissioned William Chambers to design Charlemont House at the top of Parnell Square, now the home of The Hugh Lane picture collection, and the Marino Casino built in 1762, regarded as one of the earliest and finest neoclassical structures in Ireland.  The family seat was Roxborough Castle, co. Tyrone, now dismantled.

A similar set of four candlesticks without branches, unmarked, with the arms of Fane, from a private collection, are illustrated in Elaine Barr, George Wickes, Royal Goldsmith 1698-1761, p. 110, pl. 65b.  A pair of candelabra engraved with the crest of the Prince of Wales, and made for Lord North, by George Wickes, 1731 are illustrated op. cit. frontespiece.  These show similarities in the stems and in the use of female heads below the drip-pans.  The caryatid branches were adapted by Paul de Lamerie (apprentice to Pierre Platel) and may be seen on a pair of candelabra of 1736 in the Cahn Collection (see Ellenor Alcorn, Beyond the Maker's Mark, pp. 79-82, item 24).