A PAIR OF MERCURY REGILT-BRONZE CANDELABRA, LATE LOUIS XV, CIRCA 1770 |

with three scrolled candle branches, the central stem surmouted by a sphere and centred by three addorsed putti above drapery, the circular base with laurel leaves and Vitruvian scrolls

- 'Succession Monsieur Philippe Sichel', Paris, Sale Mes Chevallier and Duchesne, 22-28 June 1899, lot 414 ;
- Collection Colonel Baron du Teil, Sale Me Etienne Ader, Galerie Charpentier, 20 and 21 November 1933, lot 138

- P. Verlet, La maison du XVIIIe siècle en France, Paris, 1966, p. 57 (ill.)

RELATED LITERATURE
- S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974
- P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, catalogue of Furniture, vol. III, London, 1996
- M.-L. de Rochebrune et al., El Gusto « a la griega ». Nacimiento del Neoclasicismo Francés, exh. cat., Madrid, 2007

Our pair of gilt bronze candelabra is comparable to a pair of silver candelabra by Robert-Joseph Auguste in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and dated 1767-1768 (fig. 3). The similar composition of addorsed putti to the central stem led Svend Eriksen to propose a date between 1765-1770 for this model. Eriksen also refers to the pair of candelabra sold by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier to the Duke of Conventry in 1767, who was known for his taste for the Classical revival and which corresponds perfectly with the object: “ une paire de Girandoles de bronze doré d'or moulu avec Enfants de Bronze de couleur antique ” [“a pair of ormoulu gilt bronze Girandoles with Bronze Children with antiquity coloring”]. Similar models include a pair from the Wallace Collection (inv. F128-9, see fig. 2) directly inspired by the classicism of Louis XIV; a pair in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 10523, see fig. 1) from the former collections of David-Weill and Grog-Carven and a similar pair of candelabra, surmounted by a covered vase instead of a sphere, from the Dillée Collection and sold Sotheby's Paris,18 March 2015, lot 73.