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Lot Essay
These 'bronze' candelabra comprise Egyptian carytic priestesses bearing triumphal palm-flower baskets issuing vase-nozzled cornucopiae, whose attendant butterflies recall the history of Cupid's love 'Psyche' as recounted in Apuleius's Egyptian romance.
Their pattern corresponds to those formerly at the Palais de Compiègne, while their figures relate to those of 'nike' victories invented in 1802 for Empress Josephine's château de Saint-Cloud apartments by the architect Charles Percier (d.1838). They reflect the antique or 'Empire' fashion popularised by Percier and Fontaine's Recueil des Décorations Intérieures, 1801 (see E. Hassling, Le Luminaire; Documents de Style Empire, Paris, nd. Fig 5; and H. Ottomeyer and P.Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. 1, 1986, p. 328 fig 5..2.1.).
Their pattern corresponds to those formerly at the Palais de Compiègne, while their figures relate to those of 'nike' victories invented in 1802 for Empress Josephine's château de Saint-Cloud apartments by the architect Charles Percier (d.1838). They reflect the antique or 'Empire' fashion popularised by Percier and Fontaine's Recueil des Décorations Intérieures, 1801 (see E. Hassling, Le Luminaire; Documents de Style Empire, Paris, nd. Fig 5; and H. Ottomeyer and P.Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. 1, 1986, p. 328 fig 5..2.1.).