ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE-FRANCOIS FEUCHERE, CIRCA 1787

Displaying the extraordinary skills and capability of the ciseleurs-fondeurs to translate objects from nature into glittering ormolu, this magnificent pair of wall-lights belongs to a distinguished corpus by Pierre-François Feuchère (1737-1823) much sought after in the past, as today, by connoisseurs and royal patrons from the courts of Paris to Vienna and St. Petersburg.

The attribution to Feuchère is supported by several documented examples of the same model with either two or three branches. A pair of this model, possibly the present lot, was supplied to the hôtel du Garde-Meuble on the Place Louis XV (today the Place de la Concorde) for Thierry de Ville d'Avray, the Intendant du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, on September 27, 1787 for 950 livres: 'Fourni le 29 septembre une paire de bras à deux branches doré au mat de forme arabesque avec groupe de toutoureaux, au prix de ...950 livres'.
Another identical pair, but with a tree above the doves in the clouds on the cresting of the wall-lights, is in the J. Paul Getty Museum (C. Bremmer-David, Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 106, cat. no. 175). Further related pairs include one formerly in the Russian imperial collection at Gatchina Palace and sold in The Alexander Collection, one sold Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 1 ($189,500), one formerly in the Collection of Antony de Rothschild and subsequently Helene de Beaumont (sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 4 December 1992, lot 6), and another pair currently preserved in the Walters Collection, Baltimore.

A larger version of these wall-lights, but with three branches and a central winged putto was supplied by Feuchère to the cabinet de toilette of Marie-Antoinette at St. Cloud in 1787 (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Francais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1987, pp. 380-381, figs. 385-387). Another pair of the model with three branches, signed Feuchere, was formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild in Vienna.

Pierre-Francois Feuchère (1737-1823) was a member of a prominent family of gilders who, along with his father, supplied gilt-bronzes to various members of the royal family. Feuchère was sworn into the guild of ciseleurs-doreurs in 1767. The Feuchères survived the vicissitudes of the Revolution and continued their successful business through the Empire and Restoration periods, selling stock from their manufactory in 1824 and 1829.