A LARGE PAIR OF LOUIS XVI GILT BRONZE THREE-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS IN THE MANNER OF PHILIPPE CAFFIÉRI, CIRCA 1775

This pair of wall lights, of impressive size and weight, relate closely to an important series of wall lights by the master bronzier Philippe Caffiéri, and commissioned for the Royal Castle at Warsaw in 1768 (see H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, Vol.II, p.557-558). Originally part of a group of twelve, with nine still remaining in Warsaw, they formed part of the decoration of the celebrated 'Marble Salon'. A signed pen and ink drawing of the design by Caffiéri is in the Warsaw National Museum (ill. in Ottomeyer and Pröschel, Vol.I, p.189, fig.3.10.2/3). A further set of six identical wall lights, one engraved fait par Caffiery on one of the drip pans, is in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (one ill. P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1987, p.199, fig.228).

An identical pair to the present lot was in the Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 20 May 1992, lot 26. This model is of comparable size and composition to the Warsaw and Getty examples, but with less surface decoration, particularly on the central vase. Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774, maître 1743), like his father Jacques, was sculpteur-ciseleur ordinaire du roi (sculptor and bronze caster to the King) and both father and son worked extensively for the court, supplying wall lights, andirons, chandeliers and clock cases for the royal palaces of Versailles, Fontainebleau and Compiègne, as well as gilt bronze mounts for furniture, notably the celebrated commode du Roi by Gaudreau (now in the Wallace Collection, London).