A PAIR OF NORTH EUROPEAN CAST-IRON TORCHERES

SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY GERMAN

Details

A PAIR OF NORTH EUROPEAN CAST-IRON TORCHERES
SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY GERMAN
Finished to imitate patinated bronze, each with fluted columns supporting campana-shaped capitals cast with foliate ornament below circular plateaux, on zoomorphic tripod legs with palmette and scallop shell mounts, previously electrified
60½ in. (153.5 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 16 October 1996, lot 33.

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Lot Essay

Popularized as 'Drawing Room Candelabra' in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, (pl.6), the model was reinterpreted from the 'antique' prototypes probably by the French-born Piccadilly bronzier Alexis Decaix. These torcheres with bacchic lion-paw 'claws' also relate to patterns for 'Tripod Stands for Work Tables, Screens & Candelabri' published in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1806 (pl.III) and in particular to the Cavaceppi candelabrum illustrated in H. Moses, Collection of Antique Vases, Tripods, Candelabra..., London, 1814, (pl. 85). Similar tripods also featured in the 1830s trade-sheet of Thomas Messenger and Sons of Birmingham and London (Temple Newsam House, 'Country House Lighting', Exhibition Catalogue, 1992, fig. 95).

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