CIRCA 1770

Conceived in the early neo-classical style of the 1770s, these monumental wall-lights relate to the designs executed by the influential ornemaniste Jean-Louis Prieur (c. 1725-c. 1785), in particular to the design for a wall-light with a flaming finial and similar foliate-wrapped branches of half circle form (A. Sassoon and G. Wilson, Decorative Arts, J.P. Getty Museum, Malibu, 1986, p. 110, fig. 232). The present wall-lights have the unusual feature that the side branches are also supported by an upward scroll, which appears on a pair of virtually identical wall-lights sold, Ader, Picard, Tajan, Paris, 6 June 1975, lot 62. Similar nozzles and urns with berried finials appear on wall-lights supplied circa 1772-'74 to the Maréchal de Contades for his château de Montgeoffroy, which are illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 215.