.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
PIERRE-FRANCOIS FEUCHERE
With their distinctive winged putto to the central branch, these candelabra direcly correspnd to the documented oeuvre of the ciseleur-doreurs Pierre-François Feuchère (1737-1823). 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 vicisitudes of the Revolution and continued their successful business through the Empire and Restoration periods, selling stock from their manufactory in 1824 and 1829.
These same putto - holding a heart, which may well be the element missing from these candelabra - featured on the pair of three-branch wall-lights supplied by Feuchère to the cabinet de toilette of Marie-Antoinette at St. Cloud in 1787 (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Do p. 380-381, figs. 385-387).
THE DESIGN
With their striding nymphs supporting spiralling cornucopiae, these candelabra relate closely to a design for a candelabrum of circa 1785, now held in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Almost certainly executed in the rue St. Honoré atelier of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, the highly finished character of this drawing would seem to suggest that it was perhaps made as 'sales material' for the dealers' clients, as with the Sachsen-Teschen album in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (59.611.8), rather than as a working design for a bronzier. This design is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 283, fig. 4.14.4. A set of four candelabrum almost identical to this design and commissioned to be placed in the four corners of a salon are now in the Wallace Collection, London and illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Furniture, London, 1956, pl. 18, whilst a further pair of the Wallace model is in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in P. Verlet, The Eighteenth Century in France, 1967, p. 30, pl. 31).
The treatment of the figures is stylistically reminiscent of those executed by François Rémond, maître-doreur in 1774, and sold by Daguerre in December 1785 to Princess Marie-Leopoldine Kinsky for her hôtel in the rue Saint Dominique (see C. Baulez, "Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, p. 89). A further related pair of similar character, also from the Rothschild family, was sold in these Rooms, 27 May 1999, lot 352 ($123,500).
With their distinctive winged putto to the central branch, these candelabra direcly correspnd to the documented oeuvre of the ciseleur-doreurs Pierre-François Feuchère (1737-1823). 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 vicisitudes of the Revolution and continued their successful business through the Empire and Restoration periods, selling stock from their manufactory in 1824 and 1829.
These same putto - holding a heart, which may well be the element missing from these candelabra - featured on the pair of three-branch wall-lights supplied by Feuchère to the cabinet de toilette of Marie-Antoinette at St. Cloud in 1787 (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Do p. 380-381, figs. 385-387).
THE DESIGN
With their striding nymphs supporting spiralling cornucopiae, these candelabra relate closely to a design for a candelabrum of circa 1785, now held in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Almost certainly executed in the rue St. Honoré atelier of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, the highly finished character of this drawing would seem to suggest that it was perhaps made as 'sales material' for the dealers' clients, as with the Sachsen-Teschen album in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (59.611.8), rather than as a working design for a bronzier. This design is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 283, fig. 4.14.4. A set of four candelabrum almost identical to this design and commissioned to be placed in the four corners of a salon are now in the Wallace Collection, London and illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Furniture, London, 1956, pl. 18, whilst a further pair of the Wallace model is in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in P. Verlet, The Eighteenth Century in France, 1967, p. 30, pl. 31).
The treatment of the figures is stylistically reminiscent of those executed by François Rémond, maître-doreur in 1774, and sold by Daguerre in December 1785 to Princess Marie-Leopoldine Kinsky for her hôtel in the rue Saint Dominique (see C. Baulez, "Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, p. 89). A further related pair of similar character, also from the Rothschild family, was sold in these Rooms, 27 May 1999, lot 352 ($123,500).