Lot Essay
The influence of French taste on the London goldsmiths and their patrons is well illustrated by this and the previous lot. A number of London goldsmiths produced candlesticks of this form which were taken directly from the French prototypes, such as the set of four by Nicolas Outrebon, lot 93. Perhaps the earliest English versions are the set of four by Paul Crespin, 1736, from the collection of the Earls of Ashburnham, now in the Farrer Collection and illustrated E. A. Jones, Catalogue of the Collection of Old English Plate of William Francis Farrer, London, 1924, p. 134. A further set by Paul Crespin, 1749, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 17 April 1996, lot 175