.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The golden wall-lights, conceived in the Louis XVI 'antique' or Roman 'columbarium' manner, have palm-wrapped candle urns and tazze that spring from acanthus-wrapped branches and are bolted to 'Apollonian' sunflowered and 'Venus' pearl-wreathed tablets. These serve as labels for urn-capped pillars that act as herm-posts to recall the poets' account of ancient festivities and sacrifices at love's altar. Jupiter's acorn crown Bacchic ram-headed wine 'krater' urns, that are borne on laurel-wreathed Apollo heads and displayed on 'Pan' reeded and antique-fluted pilasters.
Such 'bras de lumiére', also known as 'bras de cheminée', are likely to have been designed for an overmantle mirror frame. Their most elegant goût grèc fashion was introduced by Parisian bronziers such as Jacques Caffiéri (d.1774), elected a maître fondeur in 1756, and was later popularised by the Oeuvres (1780-96) of the décorateur et déssinateur Richard de Lalonde.
Such 'bras de lumiére', also known as 'bras de cheminée', are likely to have been designed for an overmantle mirror frame. Their most elegant goût grèc fashion was introduced by Parisian bronziers such as Jacques Caffiéri (d.1774), elected a maître fondeur in 1756, and was later popularised by the Oeuvres (1780-96) of the décorateur et déssinateur Richard de Lalonde.