.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These superb wall lights, with their sinuous, confident lines and sumptuous organic form, exhibit all the hallmarks of the mature rococo style of the 1750's. They share many characteristics with the oeuvre of perhaps the greatest bronzier of the period, Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755). Two pairs of wall lights displaying many similarities to these formed part of the superb bronzes d'ameublement supplied to Madame Infante, Louis XV's eldest daughter, to furnish the Palazzo at Colorno following her marriage to the Duke of Parma (one pair is in the Museée du Louvre, illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Gilt Bronzes in the Louvre, Paris, 2004, pp. 54-5, cat. 19, a further pair was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 34, FF 1,332,000; both pairs are identified through Colorno inventory numbers).
These have been convincingly attributed to Caffiéri on the basis of the celebrated chandeliers signed by Caffiéri which were part of the same commission, now in the Wallace Collection, London, one of which has the consecutive inventory number to the Givenchy wall lights.
Other related wall lights from distinguished collections include a pair in the Wrightsman Collection (illustrated F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, p. 415, cat. 228 A-B, stamped with the 'C' couronné poinçon and therefore dateable to 1745-9); a set of six, formerly in the collections of the Barons Leopold and Edmond de Rothschild and subsequently sold from the Keck Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 5-6 December 1991, lot 9 ($209,000 inc. premium), and finally a set of four from the collection of Jaime-Ortiz Patiño, sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1995, lot 60 ($134,500 inc. premium).
These have been convincingly attributed to Caffiéri on the basis of the celebrated chandeliers signed by Caffiéri which were part of the same commission, now in the Wallace Collection, London, one of which has the consecutive inventory number to the Givenchy wall lights.
Other related wall lights from distinguished collections include a pair in the Wrightsman Collection (illustrated F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, p. 415, cat. 228 A-B, stamped with the 'C' couronné poinçon and therefore dateable to 1745-9); a set of six, formerly in the collections of the Barons Leopold and Edmond de Rothschild and subsequently sold from the Keck Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 5-6 December 1991, lot 9 ($209,000 inc. premium), and finally a set of four from the collection of Jaime-Ortiz Patiño, sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1995, lot 60 ($134,500 inc. premium).