AFTER A MODEL BY LOUIS PRIEUR, CIRCA 1880

An original design for the present pair of wall-lights, attributed to Louis Prieur (maître 1752), may be found in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. This model is known to have been especially popular with the French Royal Family: a pair decorated Madame Adelaïde's grand cabinet at Bellevue and another pair, supplied to the comte de Provence at the Palais du Luxembourg, was seized during the Revolution. A further pair, possibly the same, was sent to the Palais de Fontainebleau in 1806, and is discussed in J.-P. Samoyault, Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau, Catalogue des Collections de Mobilier, I. Pendules et Bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, p. 130. Other examples of this distinguished model are in the Royal Palace, Stockholm (see H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 241, fig. 4.5.5.) and the Cleveland Museum of Art (44.469-70).

A pair of wall-lights of this same design, attributed to Louis Prieur and dating from circa 1780, sold Christie's New York, The Alexander Collection: Important French Furniture, Gold Boxes and Porcelain, April 30, 1999, lot 177 ($85,000).