A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU TWO-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS

CIRCA 1785

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU TWO-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS
Circa 1785
In two-tone gilding, each with panelled lozenge-form backplate applied with acanthus and rosette trellis, the upper section with palmette-arabesques and ears of corn issuing from a gadrooned neoclassical urn with ribbon-tied fruiting garlands, the whole entwined by serpents tails that wrap around a central female mask to form winged, scrolling snake-skin branches terminated by camel's-heads, each supporting a pounce-panelled octagonal dished drip-pan with pierced foliate frieze, surmounted by a stiff-leaf cupped pounce-panelled octagonal nozzle with milles-raies panelled removable drip-pans, the camel's heads tethered by chains suspended from the laurel and acanthus arabesques that crown the backplate, above a flowering boss with upspringing poppies, one removable drip-pan replaced
24 1/2 in. (64cm.) high; 11 1/4in. (28.5cm.) wide (2)

Provenance

The collection of Betty DeMarnay Baruch, New York.

Lot Essay

A pair of two branch wall-lights of this exact model, but in patinated -bronze and ormolu, from the Théodore Reinach collection, is illustrated L. Metman and J.-L. Vaudoyer, Le métal. Le bronze. Deuxième Album, du milieu du XVIII.e Siècle au milieu de XIX.e Siècle, Paris, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs, n.d., pl. CLIX, No. 1478.

The use of camel heads reflects the fashion for the Turkish style from the late 1770's through the 1780's, best exemplified by the Boudoir Turc commissioned by the comte d'Artois in 1781 for Versailles and the cabinet Turc decorated in 1787 by Rousseau de la Rottière for Marie-Antoinette at Fontainebleau. A pair of ormolu chenets à la Turque in the form of dromedaries, now in the Louvre, is illustrated H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, Vol. I, p.262, fig.4.8.7.

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