A PAIR OF ROYAL RESTAURATION BRONZE AND ORMOLU EIGHT-BRANCH CANDELABRA

CIRCA 1820-40

Details

A PAIR OF ROYAL RESTAURATION BRONZE AND ORMOLU EIGHT-BRANCH CANDELABRA
CIRCA 1820-40
Each in the form of a classical urn raised on tapering pilasters cast with grapevines and birds, with caryatid and animal capitals on paw feet, above triangular plinth bases applied with swans on foliate feet supporting two tiers of branches and a central upright candle branch, each with painted and stamped inventory marks to the underside, 'P.P.R 269' and 'P.P.R. 270', and a Castello Reale di Racconigi inventory label dated 1933
32½ in. (83 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Castello Reale di Racconigi, Turin.

Sale room notice

It has been suggested that these candelabra were supplied for the Etruscan Room at Castello Reale di Raconigi. The Etruscan Room was designed by Pelagio Pelagi (1775-1860) for Carlo Alberto, King of Sardinia, (1798-1849) in 1834.

Lot Essay

The candelabra are conceived in the French/antique fashion. Their conjoined 'Ceres' cornucopiae derive from a Roman architrave popularised by G.B. Piranesi's, Della Magnificenze ed Architettura de' Romani, Rome 1761 (pl.17); while their tripod-altars are inspired by an antiquity once displayed at Albano and now in the Vatican Museum (G.B. Piranesi, Antichitá d'Albano, Rome 1764, pl.8.). The bacchic vine-wreathed tripod's pattern derives from an antiquity in the Musée Napoleon (now Louvre) illustrated in H. Moses, A Collection of Antique Vases, Altars, Paterae, Tripods, Candelabra, Sarcophagi etc., London, 1814 (pl.77.). The candelabra, with their Grecian palm-flowered plinths, also relate to a pattern for a stand illustrated in T. Hope's, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807, (pl.21.).

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