A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA
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A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA

ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, CIRCA 1810

Details
A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA
ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE, CIRCA 1810
Each with a circular tazze with gadrooned rim supporting foliage and leaf-tip wrapped branches, on a concave-sided tripartite support headed by a composite capital with lion-head volute supports, decorated with torch-bearing classically draped maidens, on winged sphinx supports with paw feet and a concave-sided tripartite plinth with stiff-leaf cast edge, one candelabrum lacking two nozzles
23½ in. (60 cm.) high; 16½ in. (42 cm.) diameter (2)
Provenance
King Umberto II of Italy, from whom purchased by the grandfather of the present owner.
Literature
R. Guedes, Reais Mesas do Norte de Portugal, Lisbon, 1997, 'Mesa Casa de Saboia', pp. 22-29.
Exhibited
Porto, Alfândega, Reais Mesas do Norte de Portugal, 1995.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

The design of these tazze derives directly from a drawing for a porcelain and ormolu table of the celebrated architects and ornemanistes C. Percier and P.F.L. Fontaine. It was first illustrated in their Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, Paris, 1801-1812, pl. XXI.
A closely related pair, though lacking the candle branches and decorated with bronze ornamentation on a steel body, is in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, vol.I, p.362 fig.5.12.1), while another is in Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden (illustrated G. Haase and G. Reinheckel, Kunsthandwerk des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden, 1978, p.157. fig. E.26). An almost identical pair, with associated pierced baskets, was sold at Christie's New York, 22 May 2002, lot 385.

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