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Lot Essay
The C couronn poinon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
These remarkable candelabra, conceived as naturalistically flowering trees with entwined tle leafy branches issuing porcelain flowers with vine-cast bobches, exemplify the taste among fashionable collectors of the 1740's and 1750's for whimsical imitations of nature. They reflect the 'Pittoresque' style promoted by the ornameniste Juste-Aurle Meissonier, who illustrated girandolles a branche de porcelaine garnie d'or in his book of designs published circa 1750 by Gabriel Huquier. The taste for these objects was particularly prevalent among Royal circles, and Madame de Pompadour took great delight in being able to deceive Louis XV into believing that such colourful floral arrangements were real and not porcelain.
Charming objects such as these candelabra were supplied almost exclusively by fashionable marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux, who listed similar porcelain-mounted naturalistic candelabra in his Livre-Journal under nos. 83 and 2189, priced at 264 and 95 livres respectively (see L. Courajod, Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux...1748-1758, Paris, 1873, 2 vols.)
Madame Louise-Elisabeth (1727-1759),the eldest daughter of Louis XV, was evidently particularly enchanted by such novel imitations of nature. Two pairs of wall-lights with porcelain flowers and tulip-form bobches were delivered to her apartments at Versailles in 1759 by the dealer Testard (one pair was sold anonymously Christie's New York, 31 October 1996, lot 265, and the other is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Several pairs of candelabra with tle branches, porcelain flowers and various types of figural porcelain bases were delivered to her by Lazare Duvaux between 1749 and 1753 for the apartments at the Palace of Parma, which she was decorating lavishly following her marriage to the Infante Don Philippe of Spain, who was made Duke of Parma in 1748 (see A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, pp. 276-284).
A closely related pair of candlesticks, possibly originally with candle-arms, in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, is illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dors Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1987, p. 98, fig. 108, while another very similar pair of candelabra was sold from the collection of Ren Fribourg, Sotheby's London, 28 June 1963, lot 168.
These remarkable candelabra, conceived as naturalistically flowering trees with entwined tle leafy branches issuing porcelain flowers with vine-cast bobches, exemplify the taste among fashionable collectors of the 1740's and 1750's for whimsical imitations of nature. They reflect the 'Pittoresque' style promoted by the ornameniste Juste-Aurle Meissonier, who illustrated girandolles a branche de porcelaine garnie d'or in his book of designs published circa 1750 by Gabriel Huquier. The taste for these objects was particularly prevalent among Royal circles, and Madame de Pompadour took great delight in being able to deceive Louis XV into believing that such colourful floral arrangements were real and not porcelain.
Charming objects such as these candelabra were supplied almost exclusively by fashionable marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux, who listed similar porcelain-mounted naturalistic candelabra in his Livre-Journal under nos. 83 and 2189, priced at 264 and 95 livres respectively (see L. Courajod, Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux...1748-1758, Paris, 1873, 2 vols.)
Madame Louise-Elisabeth (1727-1759),the eldest daughter of Louis XV, was evidently particularly enchanted by such novel imitations of nature. Two pairs of wall-lights with porcelain flowers and tulip-form bobches were delivered to her apartments at Versailles in 1759 by the dealer Testard (one pair was sold anonymously Christie's New York, 31 October 1996, lot 265, and the other is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Several pairs of candelabra with tle branches, porcelain flowers and various types of figural porcelain bases were delivered to her by Lazare Duvaux between 1749 and 1753 for the apartments at the Palace of Parma, which she was decorating lavishly following her marriage to the Infante Don Philippe of Spain, who was made Duke of Parma in 1748 (see A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, pp. 276-284).
A closely related pair of candlesticks, possibly originally with candle-arms, in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, is illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dors Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1987, p. 98, fig. 108, while another very similar pair of candelabra was sold from the collection of Ren Fribourg, Sotheby's London, 28 June 1963, lot 168.