POSSIBLY ITALIAN

These spectacular candelabra, with imposing seated classical maidens in white marble bearing delicately chased candle arms cast with Bacchic masks, wheat husks and foliage, exemplify the striking, monumental interpretations of Roman bronziers of the last quarter of the 18th century such as Giusepe Valadier (d. 1839) and Francesco Righetti (1749-1822). A pair of candelabra with standing classical maidens in white marbles and with very similar foliate collars with ribbed leaves, was sold from the collection of Akram Ojjeh, Christies Monaco, 11-12 December 1999, lot 9, whilst a further pair of this basic form, but without ormolu plinths and with eight-light candelabra branches, was sold by a European Noble Family in these Rooms, 21 June 2000, lot 195. A pair of candelabra signed by Righetti and dated 1790, with similar stylized foliate nozzles and supports in the form of standing Vestal Virgins in bronze, was sold in these Rooms from the collection of Lt. Col. the Rt. Hon. Lord Burnham, Hall Barn, Buckinghamshire, 29 September 1969, lot 92.

It is also interesting to note a series of designs of circa 1795 by Giuseppe Boschi for large scale figural supports for candelabra in the form of Vestal Virgins and Bacchantes, illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto: Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, Milan, 1984, vol. II, pp. 128-9, fig. 278.