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Lot Essay
This splendid pair of candelabra, with its profusely scrolled candle-branches, is a prime example of the mid-18th century rococo that spread from Paris across Europe. A design for a candelabrum, similarly fashioned from double C-scrolls, foliage and rocaille, from circa 1745 may be the work of the elder brother of the foremost rococo artist, François Boucher (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel, et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 142, pl. 2.11.15).
The extent to which the scroll and rocaille decoration was taken and, more importantly, the almost silver-smith like tooling of the surface possibly points towards a German rather than a French place of manufacture for these candelabra. A related candelabrum in silver, made in Berlin in the early 1760's for Frederick the Great and now at Huis Doorn shows similar surface treatment (see H. Schadt I. Schneider, Kaiserliches Gold und Silber, Berlin, 1985, pp.74-76, cat. 57).
The extent to which the scroll and rocaille decoration was taken and, more importantly, the almost silver-smith like tooling of the surface possibly points towards a German rather than a French place of manufacture for these candelabra. A related candelabrum in silver, made in Berlin in the early 1760's for Frederick the Great and now at Huis Doorn shows similar surface treatment (see H. Schadt I. Schneider, Kaiserliches Gold und Silber, Berlin, 1985, pp.74-76, cat. 57).