The design of the figures is close to those which appear in a sketch by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (reproduced H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 254, fig. 4.7.1.). This sketch is of two pairs of plaster models of pairs of figures supporting candelabra exhibited at the Salon in 1761 by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-91), Director of the Sculpture Studio at Sèvres (1759-66). They were intended to be cast in silver by the orfèvre François-Thomas Germain. They are described in the Explication des Peintures, Sculptures et gravures, de Messieurs de l'Academie royale ... dans le grand Salon du Louvre pour l'année 1761 as Deux Grouppes de femmes en platre ce sont des chandeliers pour être exécutés en argent. Ils sont deux pieds six pouces de haut chacun. The design was for candelabra of approximately eighty-one centimetres high, only slightly smaller than those in this lot.

A number of other candelabra are known which show similarities to these and which may also have been inspired by the Falconet design. These include five different pairs of candelabra and a similar centrepiece in the Residenz Museum, Munich, and Schloss Nymphenburg, purchased in Paris in the 1770s by the Duc de Deux-Ponts for the Hôtel de Deux-Ponts in Strasbourg (see: H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel et al., op. cit., pp. 254-5, figs. 4.7.2 and 4.7.6). These are thought to be similar to a pair sold in the Verrier sale in Paris, 18 November 1776, lot 147. Other similar examples include a set of four in the Royal Castle, Warsaw (H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel et al., op. cit., p. 254, fig. 4.7.3) and a pair in the Wallace Collection (F. J. B. Watson, Catalogue, London, 1956, F 136 and F 137).