19TH CENTURY

These candlesticks are modelled on a pair which formed part of the écritoire de Tchesmé at Pavlovsk, St. Petersburg (see Pavlovsk, La Palais et le Parc, St. Petersburg, 1976, fig. 181). Designed by Parisian orfèvre Augustin Barnabé de Mailly for Empress Catherine II of Russia, it commemorated the peace following the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-74 and the 1770 Russian naval victory at Cheshme. Further related examples include a pair in the Wallace Collection (ill. P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. III, pp.1228-31) and a further pair sold at Sotheby's, London, 16 April 1999, lot 204.