Lot Essay
These French-fashioned crystal Venus fountain candelabra, with golden ormolu and lily-white marble, served as a vase-garniture for a pier-table or guéridon-stand; and formed part of the 18th century antique taste for Roman Etruscan columbarium vase-chambers popularised by Rome-trained architects such as Robert Adam (d.1792) and Charles Cameron (d.1812), respectively authors of The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro, 1764, and The Baths of the Romans, 1772.
They relate to candelabra designs featured in the Oeuvres of the Parisian décorateur et dessinateur Richard de Lalonde, issued between 1780 and 1796, as well as to one illustrated in the 1792 Journal des Luxus und der Moden. Candelabra of this basic form are known to have been executed in the 1790s in the St. Petersburg workshop of Vaye; thse may include the pair incorporating cobalt vases from the Imperial Glassworks, formerly in the possession of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (sold Sotheby's, Villa Demidoff, Pratolino, 24 April 1969). Related examples are illustrated in I. Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers 1760-1830, 2003, p. 48.
They relate to candelabra designs featured in the Oeuvres of the Parisian décorateur et dessinateur Richard de Lalonde, issued between 1780 and 1796, as well as to one illustrated in the 1792 Journal des Luxus und der Moden. Candelabra of this basic form are known to have been executed in the 1790s in the St. Petersburg workshop of Vaye; thse may include the pair incorporating cobalt vases from the Imperial Glassworks, formerly in the possession of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (sold Sotheby's, Villa Demidoff, Pratolino, 24 April 1969). Related examples are illustrated in I. Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers 1760-1830, 2003, p. 48.