Lot Essay
This monumental pair of wall-lights, each surmounted by cockerel finial, are based on a design for a fluted and laurel-swagged wall-light with similar finial executed around 1770 by Jean-Louis Prieur (d. 1792). In 1766, Prieur collaborated with Victor Louis, producing designs for furniture, clocks, vases and wall-lights for the Royal Palace in Warsaw, which are among the finest examples of the early neo-classicism (H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 172, fig. 3.5.1). A virtually identical pair of wall-lights was sold at Sotheby's London, 10 June 1998, lot 83.