A pair of ormolu three-branch wall lights Louis XVI, circa 1775

By repute gifted by Queen Marie-Antoinette to Madame Ménage de Pressigny
Possibly François Marie Ménage de Pressigny (1734-1795)
His daughter, Françoise Louise d'Aubigny, and by descent
Baron de Charette

Colour of gilding more golden and attrcative than in the catalogue photograph. Wired for electricity. Top bows of both loose, one with central arm slightly loose. One bow with small drill hole. WIth scattered rubbing, some oxidation and minor surface dirt to ormolu.
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A set of six ormolu wall lights of this model is in the Wrightsman collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see F. J. B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol. II, New York, 1966, p. 424. The set was reputedly part of a royal order placed by Marie-Antoinette. According to tradition, this set was given by the queen as a gift to Madame Ménage de Pressigny, wife of François Marie Ménage de Pressigny who served as Fermier Genéral (tax collector) to Louis XVI. Like many fermiers généraux of the ançien régime, Pressigny was immensely wealthy and is known to have owned some of the most celebrated works of art produced in the eighteenth century, including Fragonard’s iconic The Swing and The Good Mother. These wall lights are unlikely to have been given by Marie Antoinette: not only are they not particularly her taste but such a gift in itself is unlikely. It is however very possible that Pressigny acquired them for his townhouse in the 1770s. 

As the ribbon-tied top, the acanthus-clad arms and drip pans, the fluted lower section and the realistically cast flowers in the mid section are all masterfully executed with meticulous attention to detail, these wall lights must have been produced by one of the leading bronziers working in the goût étrusque style of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, such as Pierre Gouthière, François Rémond and Pierre-François Feuchère.

François Marie Ménage de Pressigny (1734-1795)

François Marie Ménage de Pressigny was born in Nantes in 1734. The son of Alexis Emmanuel Ménage de Pressigny and Marie-Louise Lemercier, he married Louis Rosalie Lefevre in 1769: they had two children, François Guillaume (born in 1770) and Françoise Louise (born in 1771). The latter married firstly Rigoley d'Ogny and secondly on July 24, 1792, Richard d'Aubigny, Administrateur des Postes. The son emigrated at the Revolution, and was therefore cut of from his inheritance, his father having been guillotined as were other fermiers généraux. François Marie Ménage de Pressigny's furniture from his Paris hôtel, rue des Jeuneurs, was seized, a part being sold, the rest restituted following the Revolution, including clocks, barometers and paintings. The rest was sold shortly afterwards by Madame d'Aubigny  to pay her living expenses. François Marie Ménage purchased the château and lands of Bénouville on April 10, 1792 for the large amount of 1,314,000 livres. The château, designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, was sold furnished. The inventory is too impressive to allow any positive identification. However, his daughter Madame d'Aubigny's family retained the house, very possibly with much of its furnishings, up until 1927.