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Lot Essay
Although the designer and maker of these jewel-like candlesticks is not identified, they are similar in their overall chasing and design to a set of candlesticks of tripod stem construction designed by Etienne Martincourt, (recorded 1763-1791) of which a signed pair is in the Wallace Collection, London, and an unsigned pair with slight variation is in the Frick Collection, New York (P. Hughes The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, vol. III, London, 1996, pp. 1240-1246, and T. Dell, Furniture in the Frick Collection, vol. VI, New York, 1992, pp. 287-294.) The Martincourt design differs from this set primarily in the use of infants' heads to the top of the tripod base versus the bold rams' heads found on the present examples.
The tripod base on the Martincourt design as well as those on the present lot show the influence of the designs of Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-89), who also employed in his designs a number of devices found on this set of candlesticks, such as the spirally fluted shaft, stiff leaf chasing and guilloche band. One specific Delafosse drawing from his Nouvelle Iconologie Historique ou Attributs Hiérogliphiques first published in 1768 and reissued in various editions in 1771, 1773, 1776 and 1785, STYLE LOUIS XVI, CHANDELIERS, pl. 82 and illustrated here, relates to the present example in its use of rams' heads above a foliate-cast tapering shaft.
A pair of candlesticks of virtually identical design with slight differences to the drip-pans and the bases was in the collection of Sir Richard Wallace, Bt., at Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, and subsequently with Jacques Seligmann, Paris, and acquired by Mrs. Henry Walters. This pair of candlesticks was sold from her collection at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 April - 3 May 1941, lot 1384, at which point the design was attributed to Gouthière. Another very similar pair was with Didier Aaron in 1981, and a further pair was sold in Paris, 13 June 1961, lot 31.
The tripod base on the Martincourt design as well as those on the present lot show the influence of the designs of Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734-89), who also employed in his designs a number of devices found on this set of candlesticks, such as the spirally fluted shaft, stiff leaf chasing and guilloche band. One specific Delafosse drawing from his Nouvelle Iconologie Historique ou Attributs Hiérogliphiques first published in 1768 and reissued in various editions in 1771, 1773, 1776 and 1785, STYLE LOUIS XVI, CHANDELIERS, pl. 82 and illustrated here, relates to the present example in its use of rams' heads above a foliate-cast tapering shaft.
A pair of candlesticks of virtually identical design with slight differences to the drip-pans and the bases was in the collection of Sir Richard Wallace, Bt., at Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, and subsequently with Jacques Seligmann, Paris, and acquired by Mrs. Henry Walters. This pair of candlesticks was sold from her collection at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 30 April - 3 May 1941, lot 1384, at which point the design was attributed to Gouthière. Another very similar pair was with Didier Aaron in 1981, and a further pair was sold in Paris, 13 June 1961, lot 31.