A pair of Louis XVI style gilt-bronze figural candlesticks, Continental, mid-19th century

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Description

gilt-bronze
height 13 in.
33 cm

Literature

Huges, Peter, The Wallace Collection, catalogue of Furniture, Volume III, pp 1291-1295, ill. 258, 259.

Catalogue Note

The design of this fine pair of candlesticks is derived from Etienne Le Hongre's term figure of Pomona at Versailles, which depicts the arms and the swags of fruit and flowers in a corresponding position.

Etienne Le Hongre (1628-1690) was a prolific French sculptor working for the Bâtiments du Roi at Versailles. He was one of the first generation of sculptors formed by the precepts of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and undertook numerous sculptures for the royal châteaux, including figures of Vertumnus and Pomona for the Orangerie at Versailles.

An almost identical pair of mid-nineteenth century candelabra are now preserved in the Wallace Collection, London (258, F22-3). The candlesticks in the Wallace Collection are first mentioned in the Hertford House inventories in 1890, and were present in the Long Drawing room in 1898. The Wallace examples have identical circular bases with guilloche decoration and term figures with floral swags and lace head-dresses; they differ only in the handling of the sconces. The present examples have a circular foliate disc below the candle nozzle and a gadronned scalloped collar to the nozzle.

As with the candlesticks in the Wallace Collection, the present pair can be dated to the mid-nineteenth century by their construction as well as by the lathe-turning of the casting, making up the platforms of the undersides of the bases.