A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU TWIN-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS
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A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU TWIN-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS

CIRCA 1770

Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU TWIN-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS
CIRCA 1770
Each with a classical urn on a stepped platform hung with berried garlands of husks, with tapering body adorned with foliage, issuing two serpentine candle branches, the candle-holders and drip-pans with stiff-leaf decoration, fitted for electricity, one incised on the reverse 'VIII', regilt, one with foliate side mounts lacking
18 in. (45.5 cm.) high (2)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The George III Roman 'columbarium' vase-chamber and the ancient poets' histories of sacrifices at love's altar are recalled by these elegant French-fashioned wall-lights. Their candlesticks' pearled and palm-flowered vases and tazze issue from acanthus-wrapped branches; while poetic laurel-garlanded sacred urns crown their herm-tapered brackets that are wreathed by flowered ribbon-guilloches. In 1769, a Louis XVI luminaire d'applique à bougies of this pattern, and probably executed in the late 1750s by Philippe Caffieri, featured in L.-M. Van Loo's portrait of the Marquis de Marigny (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pl. 442.)
The pattern of drip-pan and nozzle is one found on the magnificent candelabra made by the Soho entrepreneur and inventor Matthew Boulton (d. 1809), for example, a similar drip-pan can be found on the tea-urn at Syon House and another variant is found on the King's Candle Vase at Saltram House, Devon (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, pp. 272 & 340)

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