THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XVI ORMOLU TWO-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS
Third quarter 18th Century
Each with rectangular tapering backplate surmounted by a twin-handled and oak-leaf draped vase-finial and mounted with a ring-bearing lion's mask, the acanthus-wrapped scrolled arms with vase-shaped nozzles above foliate trails and an oak leaf boss
19¼ in. (49 cm.) high (2)

Special notice

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Lot Essay

These wall-lights, with lion's masks issuing acanthus-wrapped arms beneath a classical urn with oak-wreath swags, were conceived in the fashionable goût grec of the late 1760s and early 1770s. Similar examples are illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, ills. 210 and 216, and those in the Residenz in Munich, in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et.al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 186, ill. 3.9.1. A related pair, with ram's rather than lion's heads, was sold from the Blackwell collections, Christie's, London, 14 December 2000, lot 66 (£ 14,687).

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