A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU FIVE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS

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"J'ai eu un plaisir immense à décorer ce pied à terre Suisse dans le plus pur style Francais pour des clients et amis de longue date. Etant très pris par leurs occupations respectives les amenant à voyager dans le monde entier, ils m'ont confiés la décoration de cette maison dans une totale confiance. Ils souhaitaient une maison chaleureuse a la fois pour recevoir leurs invités et aussi pour mener une vie de famille avec leurs enfants. Très occupés ils trouvèrent néanmoins le temps de m'accompagner pour courir les antiquaires parisiens et les salles de ventes á Paris, Londres, New York et nous avons ainsi eu la chance de profiter à cette époque de la grande vente de la résidence de Charles de Besteigui au château de Groussay. J'ai eu beaucoup de joie à réaliser ce travail et je suis ravi de transmettre aujoudr'hui une partie de ma documentation et quelques photos pour illustrer ce catalogue en souvenir de notre amitié." Alberto Pinto LE PAVILLON CHOUGNY With its everchanging Alpine landscape, Mont Blanc itself an eyecatcher on the horizon, Le Pavillon Chougny betrays nothing of its proximity to the bustling centre of modern-day Geneva. Instead, hidden from prying eyes behind its own golf course, it evokes the informal architectural pavillons so beloved by the ancien regime, like that at Louveciennes for Madame du Barry or the comte d'Artois' Bagatelle. The Pavillon de Chougny's empathy with pre-revolutionary France is no coincidence. It was initially the creation of one man - Jaime Ortiz-Patino, whose love of French civilization was expressed by the inspired collection of French furniture, silver, books, paintings and manuscripts that he amassed at Chougny. Long since dispersed, the Patino legacy has been handsomely maintained, both in the clipped box hedges delineating terraces and parterres, as well as the furnishings of the enfilade of rooms overlooking the garden. The cool, clear mountain light and Neo-Classical boiseries at Chougny demanded a restrained palette and it was Alberto Pinto who was entrusted with creating the mise en scène. Completed over a period of more than 3 years, Pinto's painstaking restoration and redecoration inventively combined his love of texture, colour and extravagant fabrics with an astonishing eye for detail, from ravishing hand-stitched and embroidered silk tasselled curtains to passementerie table cloths for every conceivable mood. Olive green silk brocade, Napoleon III-style capitonne sofas in silk damask and floral silk taffetas bedrooms with his signature canopy beds - all provided Pinto with the perfect opportunity to juxtapose satin, silk and lace with pleats, trims and braids. Exceptional workmanship can be seen throughout the luxurious curtains, upholstered furniture and inventive lighting supplied by Maison Pinto. Beautiful, cherished and rare objects have always passed from one collector to another and the underlying inspiration for Chougny lies with the collectors of this century. Thus, objects from the Patino, Consuelo Vanderbilt and Lopez-Willshaw Collections here sit contentedly alongside the whimsical excesses of Charles de Bestegui's fantastical creation at Groussay, Pierre Delbée's very personal kunstkammer in the quai d'Orsay and Marty Alexander's unique appreciation of the object in isolation. AFTERNOON SESSION THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER AT 3.00 P.M. THE HALL

A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU FIVE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS

LATE 19TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF JEAN-CHARLES DELAFOSSE

Details

A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU FIVE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS
LATE 19TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF JEAN-CHARLES DELAFOSSE
Each with acanthus scrolling backplate with berried boss finial, issuing five scrolled channelled S-scrolled arms trailed with foliage, with stiff-leaf cast domed drip-pans and acanthus-cast baluster nozzles with guilloche and beaded drip-pans, fitted for electricity
20 in. (51 cm.) high; 21¼ in. (51.5 cm.) wide (2)

Provenance

Ader Tajan, Paris, 10 December 1999, lot 64.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium

Lot Essay

Although extremely rare in the 18th century, wall-lights with five branches did form part of the large commission by the sculpteur et ciseleur ordinaire du Roy Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774) for Stanislas-August Poniatowski, King of Poland, as well as for Catherine the Great of Russia.

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