A pair of gilt-bronze mounted green granite candelabra, Louis XVI, circa 1780

issuing four foliate scrolled candlearms, surmounted by a pineapple finial, the vase shaped body applied with beaded swags, on a square base ; (the pearls garlands later)

Related literature:
P. Kjellberg, Objets montés du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Paris, 2000, p. 170.

This pair of candelabra with pineapple finials testifies to the taste for the exotic at the end of the 18th century. However, as early as the 17th century, this design of this fruit was found on fabrics such as a velvet bedcover and armchairs in the Château d'Effiat, today in the Louvre Museum. Whilst painters also used this motif, with Jean-Baptiste Oudry creating his famous pineapple painting in 1733 (Versailles and Trianons, inv. MV 7035), it was also used by the bronziers of the time, with the renowned pair of candelabra from the Hôtel de Serres and now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Our pair of candelabra are very similar to a pair once in the Collection of Laurent Grimod de la Reynière (1733-1793), supplied for his hôtel on rue Boissy d'Anglas, then Vogüé rue Fabert et Qizilbash (sale Christie's Monaco, on June 19, 1999, lot 82, then Christie's Paris, December 19, 2007, lot 804). The only difference between them is the colour of the material employed to the body of the vase, with the pair from the Grimod Collection being of grey granite.