A pair of French white marble and gilt-bronze figural candelabra

These figural candelabra are extraordinary in their scale, amplifying a motif that was more typically seen on smaller table-top and chimneypiece candelabra to the size of a sculpture. Another large-scale model of a similar marble putto holding aloft a gilt-bronze candelabrum has been seen at auction at Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2008, lot 308 and Christie's New York, 16 October 2018, lot 144, with marbles inscribed Carrier-Belleuse and Mathurin Moreau and the mounts by Henri Picard; another treatment of the motif was at Christie's New York, 19 April 2016, lot 216. None of those examples, though, rival the present examples in size, and a more closely comparable example in this regard is the candelabrum with marble maidens that measured 200cm and sold for $84,000 at Sotheby's New York, 15 June 2005, lot 215.