FIRST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY, PROBABLY RUSSIAN

Modelled as a classically-draped figure of Nike headed by a classical urn with branches and holding a torch in each hand - a personification of Victory - this impressive pair of candelabra relates to that which once stood in the château de Saint-Cloud, recorded in the 1807 inventory, and is now in the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, Paris (ill. E. Dumonthier, Les bronzes du Mobilier National: Pendules et Cartels, Bronzes d'éclairage et de chauffage, Paris, 1911, pl. 16 no.1). A further related example, albeit devoid of branches, is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. I, p.334, fig. 5.2.15, while a closely related pair attributed to the foremost bronzier-ciseleur Pierre-Philippe Thomire was sold at Sotheby's, Paris, 8 April 2008, lot 215.