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Lot Essay
These spectacular candelabra reflect the princely taste promoted by the marchand mercier Dominique Daguerre and collected by arguably his most famous and lavish client, George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV.
They relate in particular to a remarkable group of three ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain vases, thought originally to have been a set of four, divided between the English Royal collection at Windsor Castle, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and a private American collection (sold from a private European Collection, Boulle to Jansen, Christie's, London, 11 - 12 June 2003, lot 10).
These vases all feature the same extraordinary scale, monopodia supports joined by a virtually identical platform of rouge griotte marble with a central berried rosette, and similar grapevine garlands joining the supports. Gillian Wilson has convincingly argued for an attribution of the mounts of this group of vases to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751 - 1843), on the basis of their similarity to other documented work by him (see G. Wilson and C. Hess, Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001, p. 77). Indeed grapevine garlands, as featured on these candelabra, are a recurring theme in Thomire's oeuvre, and it is not inconceivable that these could be a work from late in the career of this celebrated bronzier.
The caryatic supports to the sides also recall the designs of the influential dessinateur Jean-François Forty (d. 1788), whose Deuxieme Cahier de vases features a design for a vase with similar caryatid figures (illustrated in P. Gélis-Didot, L'Oeuvre de J. -Fr. Forty, Dessinateur et Graveur, Paris, n.d., p. 123).
They relate in particular to a remarkable group of three ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain vases, thought originally to have been a set of four, divided between the English Royal collection at Windsor Castle, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and a private American collection (sold from a private European Collection, Boulle to Jansen, Christie's, London, 11 - 12 June 2003, lot 10).
These vases all feature the same extraordinary scale, monopodia supports joined by a virtually identical platform of rouge griotte marble with a central berried rosette, and similar grapevine garlands joining the supports. Gillian Wilson has convincingly argued for an attribution of the mounts of this group of vases to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751 - 1843), on the basis of their similarity to other documented work by him (see G. Wilson and C. Hess, Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001, p. 77). Indeed grapevine garlands, as featured on these candelabra, are a recurring theme in Thomire's oeuvre, and it is not inconceivable that these could be a work from late in the career of this celebrated bronzier.
The caryatic supports to the sides also recall the designs of the influential dessinateur Jean-François Forty (d. 1788), whose Deuxieme Cahier de vases features a design for a vase with similar caryatid figures (illustrated in P. Gélis-Didot, L'Oeuvre de J. -Fr. Forty, Dessinateur et Graveur, Paris, n.d., p. 123).