CIRCA 1780, IN THE MANNER OF FRANÇOIS RÉMOND

Although the designer and ciseleur of these delicate wall-lights remains unidentified, the unusually small proportions and plateau-form drip-pans with pierced foliate decoration are in a similar vein to examples by François Rémond. A model of two-branch wall-lights described as bras à plaque or bras à plateau are listed in the workshop ledgers for Rémond in the Archives Nationale, Paris during the years 1779-1787, of which a total of 23 were supplied to the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. Some entries mention a version with suspended chains from the gallery. A pair of wall lights of this related two-branch model, which also include a pendant finial of grapes or seed pods, were sold from the Alexander Collection in these Rooms, 30 April, 1999, lot 65, and a set of four further wall lights formerly in the collection Baroness Reneé de Becker, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (F.J.B Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New york, 1966, vol. II cat. no. 238 A-D).