.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A drawing attributed to François Rémond depicts a draft design for a girandole of this model with seven branches. This design was subsequently executed by the fondeur and ciseleur-doreur François Rémond at the beginning of September 1785, and in October 1786 Marie-Antoinette ordered a pair for her new salon des Nobles at the château de Versailles, at a price of 2612 livres.
This model enjoyed enormous success, and numerous variants with slight modifications, including sphinxes, goat's-heads etc. were subsequently created. On 16 April 1787, Rémond supplied the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre eight girandoles en trépied for a total price of 7200 livres, and these can probably be identified with the eight candelabra of this model bought from Daguerre by George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV, for Carlton House. Placed in the Throne Room, they are visible in the artist Charles Wild's 1818 watercolour, illustrated in 'Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace', Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1991, col. pl. IV, no.195.
The larger 10-light model with a vase and cockerels' heads was created around 1786. At this date Thierry in his Guide des étrangers mentions Deux magnifiques girandoles en bronze doré d'or moulu, en forme de trépieds avec arabesques et contenant chacune dix bobèches.....ces girandoles.....ont été exécuteés par Daguerre.
The inventory drawn up following the death of the banker Perrégaux in 1808 mentions four pairs of girandoles with either four or five branches with cockerels' heads.
A pair of candelabra of this model are recorded in the 1836 Inventory of the collection of Legendre de Lucay - Deux riches candélabres anciens en forme de trépied à têtes d'aigles et de coqs entièrement dorés, 300 francs - whilst a further pair were acquired by madame de Brunoy for her hôtel in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and these are perhaps those now exhibited in the salon des Nobles de Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
Today, several candelabra of this model are known, including:-
-a pair with ten branches in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (OA 5288), the vases in patinated-bronze, illustrated in Carl Dreyfus, Musée National du Louvre: Catalogue Sommaire du Mobilier et des Objets d'Art du XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, 1913, no. 334.
-a second pair in the Musée Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (illustrated in Connaissance des Arts, March 1962, p.81, ill. 12).
-a third pair recorded in the Cherenetiev Collection, Ostankino Palace, Moscow before 1914.
-A fourth pair, also with ten lights, originally sold from the Demidoff Collection in the San Donato sale, 15 May 1880, lot 1183 and subsequently in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 24 March 1887, lot 1, then 9 May 1888, lot 96 and finally by Guttierez de Estrada, Paris, 28 April 1905, lot 127.
-and a fifth pair, also with ten lights, sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30 March 1987, lot 99 and subsequently with Galerie Didier Aaron, 1988 (illustrated 'La Folie d'Artois', Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1988, pp. 176-77).
This model enjoyed enormous success, and numerous variants with slight modifications, including sphinxes, goat's-heads etc. were subsequently created. On 16 April 1787, Rémond supplied the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre eight girandoles en trépied for a total price of 7200 livres, and these can probably be identified with the eight candelabra of this model bought from Daguerre by George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV, for Carlton House. Placed in the Throne Room, they are visible in the artist Charles Wild's 1818 watercolour, illustrated in 'Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace', Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1991, col. pl. IV, no.195.
The larger 10-light model with a vase and cockerels' heads was created around 1786. At this date Thierry in his Guide des étrangers mentions Deux magnifiques girandoles en bronze doré d'or moulu, en forme de trépieds avec arabesques et contenant chacune dix bobèches.....ces girandoles.....ont été exécuteés par Daguerre.
The inventory drawn up following the death of the banker Perrégaux in 1808 mentions four pairs of girandoles with either four or five branches with cockerels' heads.
A pair of candelabra of this model are recorded in the 1836 Inventory of the collection of Legendre de Lucay - Deux riches candélabres anciens en forme de trépied à têtes d'aigles et de coqs entièrement dorés, 300 francs - whilst a further pair were acquired by madame de Brunoy for her hôtel in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, and these are perhaps those now exhibited in the salon des Nobles de Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
Today, several candelabra of this model are known, including:-
-a pair with ten branches in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (OA 5288), the vases in patinated-bronze, illustrated in Carl Dreyfus, Musée National du Louvre: Catalogue Sommaire du Mobilier et des Objets d'Art du XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, 1913, no. 334.
-a second pair in the Musée Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (illustrated in Connaissance des Arts, March 1962, p.81, ill. 12).
-a third pair recorded in the Cherenetiev Collection, Ostankino Palace, Moscow before 1914.
-A fourth pair, also with ten lights, originally sold from the Demidoff Collection in the San Donato sale, 15 May 1880, lot 1183 and subsequently in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 24 March 1887, lot 1, then 9 May 1888, lot 96 and finally by Guttierez de Estrada, Paris, 28 April 1905, lot 127.
-and a fifth pair, also with ten lights, sold Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 30 March 1987, lot 99 and subsequently with Galerie Didier Aaron, 1988 (illustrated 'La Folie d'Artois', Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1988, pp. 176-77).