A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU SEVEN-BRANCH CANDELABRA

ATTRIBUTED TO THOMIRE, CIRCA 1810

Details

A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU SEVEN-BRANCH CANDELABRA
Attributed to Thomire, circa 1810
Each with flaring circular stem, decorated with three draped maidens each standing atop a ball and holding aloft a flaming torch, with acanthus-sheathed, base reeded knop and tripartite paw foot base, headed by three acanthus-sheathed scrolled branches with flowerhead terminal headed by an Apollo mask on a crescent moon, terminating in an eagle head surmounted by a molded and reeded drip-pan and ovoid bobèche, the whole surmounted by a leaf-tip decorated disk and three acanthus-sheathed scroll branches with seahorse heads and similar bobèches, centering a tall urn with palmette decoration and spiral-fluted neck and reeded lip, on a flaring triangular plinth base set on each side with a draped maiden, the angles headed by ram's masks, on sphinx supports, on a inswept tripartite base with stylized leaf-tip ogee-molded upper edge, dot numbered overall, each inscribed U69 in pencil
40in. (101.5cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Almost certainly supplied for the Palais d'Arenberg, Belgium.
Thence by descent to Princess Lydia d'Arenberg di Savoia Genova, Palais d'Arenberg, Belgium.
Thence by descent.

Lot Essay

Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), fondeur-ciseleur, maître in 1772.

This model of candelabra was almost certainly created by Thomire et Cie. for one of the Imperial châteaux. A virtually-identical pair of candelabra are in the Palais de Compiègne (illustrated in E. Dumonthier, Les Bronzes du Mobilier National: Bronzes d'Éclairage et de Chauffage, Paris, 1911, pl. 27, fig. 3). Though Thomire himself retired in 1823, his firm, Thomire et Cie., survived until after 1850.

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