Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley 1847-1919 "Candélabres-Girandoles aux Autruches", A fine and important pair of louis XVI style gilt-bronze seven light candelabra, Paris, third quarter 19th century, after the celebrated model by François Rémond

several bronze elements stamped BY and some with two digit markings for the bronze model's serial numbers

Camille Mestdagh, L'Ameublement d'Art Français: 1850-1900, Paris, 2010, p. 24-25, p. 243, p. 262-276, pl. 19, 20, 285
Verlet, Pierre, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe siècle, Picard, Paris, 1987, p. 103, pl. 119
Van Der Kemp, Gerald, Versailles, Park Lane, New York, 1989, p. 99-101

In her book L'Ameublement d'art français: 1850-1900, Camille Mestdagh provides a comprehensive history of the firm of Beurdeley and their production. She illustrates an identical pair of candelabra after François Rémond, by Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley, to compare to the present example. Mestdagh also illustrates an interesting design for an adaptation of this model by Beurdeley from 1893, now preserved in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, with the pair of ostriches mounted on a tripod support. 

François Rémond (1747-1812) was a leading Parisian gilder and bronzier during the second half of the 18th century. He began his apprenticeship in 1763 and became a master in the guild of bronze gilders eleven years later. Rémond built up a successful business patronized by members of the French court and by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. He collaborated on some pieces with the bronzier Pierre Gouthiére, helping him on some of his larger projects and supplying clockmakers and ébénistes such as David Roentgen with decorative figures and ornaments, as well as finely cast gilt bronze furniture mounts. 

These "ostrich candelabras" were indeed done after the model created by Rémond on 28 December 1782 for the Boudoir Turc of the Comte d'Artois (Louis XVI's brother) at Versailles. It has been argued that the French fascination with Turkish culture developed after Mustapha et Zéangir, a play depicting stories of Suleiman the Magnificent, premiered in Paris during the 1770's. The comte d'Artois was profoundly impacted by the production, and was moved to commission Etienne-Louis Boullé to create a room inspired by the Turkish taste. The Boudoir Turc soon followed, and thus the "ostrich candelabra" were born. 

Rémond's commercial records list the candelabra as having cost nearly 6000 livres. They still remain at Versailles, where they are currently exhibited in the Salon des Nobles. 

Louis Auguste Beurdeuley (1808-1882) and Emmanuel Alfred Beurdeuley (August 11, 1847- November 20, 1919) specialized in reproductions of the most magnificent articles from the Garde Meuble National. The firm exhibited and won awards at all of the major international exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth  century. The quality and skill employed in production was of exceptional quality; their ormolu mounts with mercurial gilding and hand chasing were often difficult to distinguish from late eighteenth-century examples, and were considered the finest in Paris. The firm was pioneered by Jean Beurdeley (1772-1853), later managed by his son Louis-Auguste-Alfred, and finally imparted to his son Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis in 1875.  The firm was established at 32 and 34 Rue Louis-Le-Grand, and also owned the Pavillon de Hanovre, where it was based while Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis added two additional workshops at 20 and 24 Rue Dautancourt by 1875. The Beurdeley workshops closed in 1896, although were still partially active until 1898 and the stock was sold over a number of auctions conducted by the Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two auction catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between March 6-8 and May 27-28.