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拍品专文
The pose and design of the figures on these candelabra closely match the figures in the margin sketch in the 1761 livret of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, reproduced above. Although they do not match the drawn figures exactly, their derivation from the same source is highly probable. Saint-Aubin's sketch was of a pair of plaster candelabra models exhibited at the Salon in 1761 by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-91), then Director of the Sculpture Studio at the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (1759-66). These plaster bozetti were intended to be cast in silver by the orfèvre François-Thomas Germain (1726-91), who had taken over the workshop and royal appointment of his illustrious father, Thomas Germain, upon the latter's death. In the Explication des Peintures, Sculptures et gravures, de Messieurs de l'Academie Royale...dans le grand Salon du Louvre pour l'année 1761, Falconet's models are mentioned as Deux grouppes de femmes en platre ce sont des chandeliers pour être exécutés en argent. Ils sont deux pieces six pouces de haut chacun. Interestingly, the design for the candelabra were approximately eighty-one centimeters high, only slightly smaller than those offered in this lot.
Germain's collaboration with Falconet on this design was also noted of by l'abbé de La Porte, who wrote Ce sont des supports de chandeliers qui doivent être exécutés en argent et faire partie d'un service de table pour une cour étrangere. Les amateurs des arts et ceux de l'honnêteté ont applaudi au procédé de M. Germain. Il a publié, avec une franchise malheureusement peu commune, le choix qu'il a fait de M. Falconet pour l'exécution de toutes les figures de ce surtout. Evidently, the commission for an elaborate surtout including figural candelabra based upon the Falconet and Germain model drawn by Saint-Aubin was placed for what l'abbé de la Porte called a 'foreign court'. Perrin points out that the Portuguese court commissioned Germain to execute a hugely expensive surtout with such candelabra in 1777 (C. Perrin, François Thomas Germain: Orfèvre des rois, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau, 1993, pp. 196-7). In the end, however, this royal commission was abandoned despite the work already done by Germain.
Germain's cast-models appeared to have instead been utilized by a number of ciseleurs-doreurs, all of which would seem to owe their origins to the 1761 plaster model by Falconet. As mentioned, although originally intended to be cast in silver, the model was also executed in patinated and gilt bronze. See, for example, a similar model signed by the fondeur François Boudet (maître in 1765) that was sold by Hartman Galleries, Parke Bernet, New York, 9 October 1971, lot 131. A pair of three-light candelabra with gilt-bronze figures upon a white marble base were acquired by the Duke of Zweibrücken, and are now in the Residenz, Munich (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 254, fig. 4.7.2), and may be similar to a pair in the Verrier sale in Paris, 18 November 1776, lot 147. The Wallace Collection, London, has another related pair of four-branch candelabra with patinated-bronze figures upon a gilt-bronze base (illustrated in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. III, cat. no. 237 (F136-7), pp. 1213-16), while a set of four are found in the Royal Castle, Warsaw (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel, op. cit., p. 254, fig. 4.7.3).
Finally, a pair of candelabra of identical model, formely from the collections of the Barons Nathaniel and Alphonse de Rothschild, was sold by Alexander and Berendt, Ltd., Christie's London, 10 June 1993, lot 50 (£84,000)
Germain's collaboration with Falconet on this design was also noted of by l'abbé de La Porte, who wrote Ce sont des supports de chandeliers qui doivent être exécutés en argent et faire partie d'un service de table pour une cour étrangere. Les amateurs des arts et ceux de l'honnêteté ont applaudi au procédé de M. Germain. Il a publié, avec une franchise malheureusement peu commune, le choix qu'il a fait de M. Falconet pour l'exécution de toutes les figures de ce surtout. Evidently, the commission for an elaborate surtout including figural candelabra based upon the Falconet and Germain model drawn by Saint-Aubin was placed for what l'abbé de la Porte called a 'foreign court'. Perrin points out that the Portuguese court commissioned Germain to execute a hugely expensive surtout with such candelabra in 1777 (C. Perrin, François Thomas Germain: Orfèvre des rois, Saint-Rémy-en-l'Eau, 1993, pp. 196-7). In the end, however, this royal commission was abandoned despite the work already done by Germain.
Germain's cast-models appeared to have instead been utilized by a number of ciseleurs-doreurs, all of which would seem to owe their origins to the 1761 plaster model by Falconet. As mentioned, although originally intended to be cast in silver, the model was also executed in patinated and gilt bronze. See, for example, a similar model signed by the fondeur François Boudet (maître in 1765) that was sold by Hartman Galleries, Parke Bernet, New York, 9 October 1971, lot 131. A pair of three-light candelabra with gilt-bronze figures upon a white marble base were acquired by the Duke of Zweibrücken, and are now in the Residenz, Munich (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 254, fig. 4.7.2), and may be similar to a pair in the Verrier sale in Paris, 18 November 1776, lot 147. The Wallace Collection, London, has another related pair of four-branch candelabra with patinated-bronze figures upon a gilt-bronze base (illustrated in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. III, cat. no. 237 (F136-7), pp. 1213-16), while a set of four are found in the Royal Castle, Warsaw (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel, op. cit., p. 254, fig. 4.7.3).
Finally, a pair of candelabra of identical model, formely from the collections of the Barons Nathaniel and Alphonse de Rothschild, was sold by Alexander and Berendt, Ltd., Christie's London, 10 June 1993, lot 50 (£84,000)