19TH CENTURY, AFTER A DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO JUSTE-AURELE MEISSONIER, LATER FITTED AS LAMPS

The design for this pair of candlesticks may be attributed to Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier on the basis of his drawings for a toilet mirror with similar infants to the top and three designs of 1728 for a silver candlestick which have a very similar base (J.-A. Meissonnier, Oeuvre de Juste Aurèle Meissonnier, Peintre..., n.d., nos. 71, 10, 11 and 12, respectively). A pair of identical 18th century versions of this model, from the Patiño Collection was sold Sotheby's, New York, 1 November 1988, lot 15, and bore the inscription HINC PURAE SEMINA FLAMMAE, which has been associated with the birth of the dauphin, son of Louis XV and Marie Leczinska, on 4 September 1729.

Further pairs of this design are in the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, and in the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, III, London, 1996, cat. 259, pp. 1295 - 1300).