THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
A pair of rare Dutch silver candlesticks à la financière

MAKER'S MARK OF GILLIS PRICK, MAASTRICHT 1674/1678

Details
A pair of rare Dutch silver candlesticks à la financière
Maker's mark of Gillis Prick, Maastricht 1674/1678
Each on square-stepped base with central circular depression, rising to the square-fluted drippan, the square cluster column stem with applied reeded bands and fluted rim
15 cm. (5.9 in.) high
underneath the base
(542 gr.) (2)
Provenance
According to the present owner: Franz Ludwig von Muralt (1638-1684), who was a officer of the Berner Regiment von Erlach. He was sent to Holland by King Louis XIV and fought against William Orange of Nassau, the later King of England William III. According to the family archives he was in the battles of Nijmegen in 1672, Maastricht in 1673 and Senef in 1674. It is likely that he acquired these candlesticks during his stay after the battle of Maastricht in 1673.
And thence by descent

Lot Essay

cf. Christie's Geneva, May 15, 1995 lot 167, for an almost identical pair but of a larger size, made in Paris in 1673 by Claude Martin. Usually this type of candlesticks was part of a toilet service.
A pair of similar candlesticks made in The Hague in 1682 are preserved in the Museum Boymans van Beuningen, see J.R. ter Molen, Zilver, Rotterdam 1994 nr.38.
Another pair is now in the Haags Gemeente Museum, see Exhibition Catalogue 1967, nr. 80.
A later pair by Anthonie Donker made in Amsterdam in 1708 is in the collection of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum.
For a simular but later pair made by Henri Stocx junior, Maastricht, 1679-1682, see: L'Orfevrerie civile ancienne du pays de Liège, Liege 19 avril-2 juin,1991, p.309 (ill.)
The first of these type of candlesticks appear circa 1660 in Paris.
The name à la financiére possibly came from the economical way of using the whole candle. Some hollow stems might have had an ejection system to push-up the candle completely.
see illustration

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