.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Almost certainly supplied by a marchand-mercier, most probably Dominique Daguerre, these candelabra have recently been attributed by C. Baulez in part to the bronzier François Rémond (maître in 1774). As P. Hughes commented in The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, Vol.III, pp.1237-40, no.244, F132/3), this model shares much in common with another pair of candelabra also in the Wallace Collection (F134-5), whose palm-leaf bobèches are of identical model to those used by Rémond in 1782 on the ostrich candelabra he supplied for the cabinet turc of the comte d'Artois at Versailles. Moreover, the distinctive frieze of playful putti bringing swags to an altar further strengthens the attribution to Rémond, as he is known to have supplied M. Daguerre..deux basrelief pour girandolle ciselure monture on 23 March 1782 at a cost of 42l., as well as charging 40l. pour dorure des deux basrelief et avoir redoré les pied de girandolle.
Two models of vase candelabra with bacchante figures are recorded. The first model, without a frieze, is in the Huntington Gallery, California (illustrated in R. Wark, Catalogue of the Huntington Gallery, n.d., figs.100-101) and in the Frick Collection, New York (T. Dell, The Frick Collection, Princeton, 1992, Vol.VI, pp.267-275). The second model, with the distinctive frieze seen on the present pair, is further recorded in the Wallace Collection, London (illustrated in P. Hughes, op. cit.) and in the Mobilier National, Paris (illustrated in E. Dumonthier, Le Mobilier National, Paris, n.d., pl.7, fig. 1).
A vase of this basic form but with a rounded shoulder, and thus with maidens on the sides rather than seated on the edge of the angular shoulder, is depicted by Jean-François Forty (d. 1788) in his Deuxième Cahier de Vases (illustrated in P. Gélis-Didot, L'Oeuvre de J.-Fr. Forty, Dessinateur et Graveur, Paris, nd, p. 123). Forty's design features a floral wreath to each side around the figures' hands, foliate swags (though not vine and grape, as on the vases on offer), a leaf-sheathed belly, foliate knop, spiral-fluted (not straight-fluted) stem, and circular foot. However, as the Forty Cahier is undated, it is not clear whether his design was fruit for or simply records the product of the Daguerre/Rémond collaboration.
Two models of vase candelabra with bacchante figures are recorded. The first model, without a frieze, is in the Huntington Gallery, California (illustrated in R. Wark, Catalogue of the Huntington Gallery, n.d., figs.100-101) and in the Frick Collection, New York (T. Dell, The Frick Collection, Princeton, 1992, Vol.VI, pp.267-275). The second model, with the distinctive frieze seen on the present pair, is further recorded in the Wallace Collection, London (illustrated in P. Hughes, op. cit.) and in the Mobilier National, Paris (illustrated in E. Dumonthier, Le Mobilier National, Paris, n.d., pl.7, fig. 1).
A vase of this basic form but with a rounded shoulder, and thus with maidens on the sides rather than seated on the edge of the angular shoulder, is depicted by Jean-François Forty (d. 1788) in his Deuxième Cahier de Vases (illustrated in P. Gélis-Didot, L'Oeuvre de J.-Fr. Forty, Dessinateur et Graveur, Paris, nd, p. 123). Forty's design features a floral wreath to each side around the figures' hands, foliate swags (though not vine and grape, as on the vases on offer), a leaf-sheathed belly, foliate knop, spiral-fluted (not straight-fluted) stem, and circular foot. However, as the Forty Cahier is undated, it is not clear whether his design was fruit for or simply records the product of the Daguerre/Rémond collaboration.