EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF RUSSIAN ORMOLU AND STAINED GLASS FOUR-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS
Early 19th Century
Each with a flowerhead and scrolling foliate-cast backplate issuing a winged swan, suspending a corona and four scrolled arms with vase-shaped nozzles and dished drip-pans, the glass plates replaced
11 in. (28 cm.) high; 8 in. (20 cm.) wide; 14¼ in. (36 cm.) deep

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Conceived in the Russian Empire style of the 1810s, the design for these spendid wall-lights, with candle-branches issuing from a swan's beak, derive from contemporary French examples such as the four pairs of wall-lights supplied by Pierre-Philippe Thomire to the château de Fontainebleau in 1812 (Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, p. 146, fig. 122). These Russian examples were undoubtedly part of an important commission and are closely related to a pair with a virtually identical backplate, in a Finnish private collection, which is illustrated in Empire, Heinolan Kaupunginmuseon julkaisuja no 3, Lahti, 1994, p. 179, fig 197.

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