A rare pair of Louis XV silver table candlesticks, Thomas Germain, Paris, 1734

with ovolo borders, fluted wells, paneled baluster shafts with cut corners and ovolo panels below palmettes, octagonal shoulders and campana sconces chased with stiff leaves and raised bosses

Sarah Spencer Morgan, sister of J.P. Morgan,
and by descent.

One candlestick is lightly engraved underneath "João de Lemos", possibly for João de Lemos Seixas Castelo Branco (1819-1890), Portuguese journalist, poet and dramatist.

The Portuguese connection raises the possibility that these candlesticks may have formed part of Thomas Germain's deliveries to that extremely wealthy Court.  In 1722, the goldsmith delivered his first order, a toilet service, to King João V of Portugal.  In 1728, an order for 6,000 marcs of silver (almost 48,000 ounces) was placed.  Such an enormous commission would have taken several years to fulfill in total, and would easily have still been being made and hallmarked in Paris in 1734.  The stamped numbers in the sconces, while rare in the 18th century, indicate that these sticks belonged at one point to a very large service. 

Germain's deliveries for the Portuguese Crown are recorded as perishing in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, but it is possible elements of the huge service survived, either recovered or in other palaces.  The goldsmith had additional Portuguese clients as well: an ecuelle and stand with the arms of Cardinal da Motta, 1733, is preserved in the Louvre, a basin for Cardinal Don Fernando de Sousa e Silvera, 1744, is in the museum in Lisbon, and the Getty has two pairs of tureens by Thomas and François-Thomas Germain, associated with the Portuguese ambassador to the court of Louis XV.

While the Portuguese name points strongly in that direction, Thomas Germain was furnishing several other courts in Europe.  In addition to the French crown and German princes such as the Elector of Cologne, in 1722 he delivered a toilet service for the Queen of Spain, and in 1732-33 ones for the King and Queen of the Two Sicilies.  A dinner service ordered from Germain by Christian VI of Denmark includes six candlesticks of 1737 with sconces identical to the ones from the Morgan collection, showing how he varied models for his important and discriminating clientele.

Germain Bapst, Études Sur L'Orfèvrerie Français au XVIII Siècle, 1887 where a candlestick of this model by Thomas Germain from the collection of M. Amherst is illustrated opposite p. 104.

minor dings, otherwise good
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