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Lot Essay
With their distinctive trailing bunches of grapes contrasted against plain burnished scrolling branches, these candelabra are of similar character to the celebrated wall-lights attributed to Pierre-François Feuchère. Of these, one pair was supplied to Versailles for Thierry de Ville d'Avray, the commissaire général des Gardes-Meuble de la Couronne, on September 27, 1787 for 950 livres; another pair, but with different bobèches, is in the J. Paul Getty Museum (C. Bremmer-David, Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 106, cat. no. 175; a further pair, signed Feuchère, was formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild in Vienna; and a final pair was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 91.
Although the reputed Pavlosk provenance cannot be confirmed, it is interesting to note that the Alexander wall-lights definitely had a Russian provenance, as they were marked with Soviet inventory numbers for Gatchina Palace, indicating that they were probably acquired by Emperor Paul I of Russia.
Although the reputed Pavlosk provenance cannot be confirmed, it is interesting to note that the Alexander wall-lights definitely had a Russian provenance, as they were marked with Soviet inventory numbers for Gatchina Palace, indicating that they were probably acquired by Emperor Paul I of Russia.