FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

The model of these elegant candelabra exists in three patterns, with the first version featuring one putti blowing a conch. Of this version one pair was sold by M. Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 5, and another at Christie's, London, 21 June 2000, lot 187. The second version, which is attributed to Philippe Caffiéri, shows putti playing flutes and a pair of candelabra, part of the Zweibrücken or Pfalz inheritance acquired by the Bavarian Wittelsbachs after 1799, is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, O. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, p. 156, fig. 3.2.1. While the present candelabra represent a third version, which include a pair from the Givenchy collection, sold at Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 6, and a pair formerly in the collections of Baron de Rothschild and sold from the Ojjeh - Wildenstein collection at Sotheby's, Monaco, 25-26 June 1979, lot 51.

It has been suggested that the rights to this model may have originally belonged to the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier. In 1770, Poirier delivered 'une paire de girandoles à trois branches en bronze doré d'or moulu ornées de figures de porcelaine de France 624 livres' to Madame du Barry. Another pair of are described as 'à trois branches à figures d'enfants en bronze couleur antique avec pied à feuille d'ornement six cent livres' which are listed in the collection of Président de Nicolay at the end of the 18th Century. The authorship of these bronze groups has been discussed by Robert Wenley (French Bronzes in the Wallace Collection, London, 2002, p. 84-85) and a set of four is in the Wallace Collection.