A pair of Louis XVI style gilt-bronze three-light candelabra, late 19th century

Property from a Private Collection;

Sotheby's New York, Fine French and Continental Furniture, 22 May 1993, lot 184.

The design for the present pair of candelabra takes after a model attributed to the French designer and ciseleur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-1791). In his article on Saint-Germain, Jean-Dominique Augarde, indeed attributes an 18th century pair of candelabra from the collection of Camille Burgi to Saint-Germain (Jean-Dominique Augarde, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, L’Estampille-L’Objet d’Art, December 1996, p.78). He further attributes the design for these candelabra to the influence of St Germain’s first cousin, Jean-Louis Prieur. Indeed a drawing by Prieur in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. no. 8519) shows a candelabrum with lion’s feet and socle identical to those on the offered lot.

A pair of candelabra by St. Germain of identical design but with a nozzle in place of the flame finial above the central brûle-parfum, is illustrated in Ottomeyer, Vergoldete Bronze, I, 1986, p. 167, no. 3.4.7. A related pair of candelabra was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 22 May 1997, lot 126.