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Lot Essay
With their naturalistic acanthus branches and fruiting oak leaves issuing from a central scroll, these superb wall-lights reflect the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style in its purest form. This elaborate and ambitious type was executed by various bronziers in 1740s and 1750s but the present wall-lights are characteristic of the oeuvre of the orfèvre and fondeur du Roi Jean-Claude Duplessis père (1695-1774).
DUPLESSIS, ORFEVRE ET FONDEUR DU ROI
This model has traditionally been attributed to Duplessis and the Riahi wall-lights are closest to a pair in the Wrightsman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, now generally accepted as having been executed by the orfèvre (F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 415, figs 228 A and B). Of the exact same outline, the latter pair features acanthus branches and fruiting oak leaves, similarly entwined to form the same perfectly balanced scroll. The Wrightsman wall-lights can be dated with precision as they are stamped with a C couronné poinçon, a tax mark applied to any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
The Riahi wall-lights are also closely related to those specially designed by Duplessis to adorn the magnificent Bureau du Roi supplied by Jean-Henri Riesener in 1769 (D. Meyer, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace, 17 and 18th Centuries, Dijon, 2002, p. 122, fig. 33). Jean-François Oeben was first entrusted with the commission in 1760 but Riesener - who took over the former's atelier after his death in 1763 - completed the work.
FURTHER RELATED MODELS OF NOTE
Several recorded examples signed by Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755) sculpteur, ciseleur et fondeur du Roi, relate closely to the Riahi pair. These include a set of four wall-lights acquired in Paris circa 1752-53 by Madame-Louise-Elisabeth, Madame Infante, duchesse de Parme, for the Palace of Colorno, near Parma, where they remained until 1865. This set of four is traditionally attributed to Jacques Caffiéri, probably assisted by his elder son, Philippe (1714-1774, maître fondeur in 1756) on the basis of two chandeliers executed en suite, signed and dated 'CAFFIéRI A PARIS/1751', now in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, catalogue of furniture, vol. III, London, 1996, fig. 265 and 266). Certain variations to the decorative répertoire and overall 'fluidity' of the composition allow us to distinguish these from the oeuvre of Duplessis. Of similar outline and general naturalistic movement, the Colorno wall-lights lack the fruiting oak leaves featured on the present pair. They are also - arguably - executed in a more 'painstaking', less fluid, style than the related examples traditionally attributed to Duplessis.
Two further pairs, closely related to the Riahi wall-lights, were in the Hôtel de l'Etat-Major de la Garde des Consuls under the Consulat period, and moved to Fontainebleau in 1804 (P. Samoyault, Fontainebleau, Pendules et Bronzes entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, p. 123, fig. 88). Whilst the first of the two pairs is now in the Louvre, the other was moved to the château de Versailles in 1964. Both pairs are of the exact same outline as the present wall-lights and feature naturalistic acanthus branches similarly entwined in a scroll; the only visible variation being a more limited use of oak leaves on the Louvre/Versailles examples.
MAURICE DE ROTHSCHILD
Maurice Edmond Charles de Rothschild (1881-1957) was the second son of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), the builder of the château de Pregny. Maurice became a 'self-made' billionaire through skilled investments in the markets. He created a political career for himself, serving as a senator for the Hautes-Pyrénées from 1919 and then from 1924 of the Hautes-Alpes. He followed his father into membership of the Academy of Fine Arts, in recognition of the collecting tastes he had honed during his short spell as a picture dealer. He inherited some of the Rothschilds' finest properties: on rue du Monceau and rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris, as well as Armainvilliers and Pregny, where he died on 5 September 1957.
DUPLESSIS, ORFEVRE ET FONDEUR DU ROI
This model has traditionally been attributed to Duplessis and the Riahi wall-lights are closest to a pair in the Wrightsman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, now generally accepted as having been executed by the orfèvre (F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 415, figs 228 A and B). Of the exact same outline, the latter pair features acanthus branches and fruiting oak leaves, similarly entwined to form the same perfectly balanced scroll. The Wrightsman wall-lights can be dated with precision as they are stamped with a C couronné poinçon, a tax mark applied to any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
The Riahi wall-lights are also closely related to those specially designed by Duplessis to adorn the magnificent Bureau du Roi supplied by Jean-Henri Riesener in 1769 (D. Meyer, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace, 17 and 18th Centuries, Dijon, 2002, p. 122, fig. 33). Jean-François Oeben was first entrusted with the commission in 1760 but Riesener - who took over the former's atelier after his death in 1763 - completed the work.
FURTHER RELATED MODELS OF NOTE
Several recorded examples signed by Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755) sculpteur, ciseleur et fondeur du Roi, relate closely to the Riahi pair. These include a set of four wall-lights acquired in Paris circa 1752-53 by Madame-Louise-Elisabeth, Madame Infante, duchesse de Parme, for the Palace of Colorno, near Parma, where they remained until 1865. This set of four is traditionally attributed to Jacques Caffiéri, probably assisted by his elder son, Philippe (1714-1774, maître fondeur in 1756) on the basis of two chandeliers executed en suite, signed and dated 'CAFFIéRI A PARIS/1751', now in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, catalogue of furniture, vol. III, London, 1996, fig. 265 and 266). Certain variations to the decorative répertoire and overall 'fluidity' of the composition allow us to distinguish these from the oeuvre of Duplessis. Of similar outline and general naturalistic movement, the Colorno wall-lights lack the fruiting oak leaves featured on the present pair. They are also - arguably - executed in a more 'painstaking', less fluid, style than the related examples traditionally attributed to Duplessis.
Two further pairs, closely related to the Riahi wall-lights, were in the Hôtel de l'Etat-Major de la Garde des Consuls under the Consulat period, and moved to Fontainebleau in 1804 (P. Samoyault, Fontainebleau, Pendules et Bronzes entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, p. 123, fig. 88). Whilst the first of the two pairs is now in the Louvre, the other was moved to the château de Versailles in 1964. Both pairs are of the exact same outline as the present wall-lights and feature naturalistic acanthus branches similarly entwined in a scroll; the only visible variation being a more limited use of oak leaves on the Louvre/Versailles examples.
MAURICE DE ROTHSCHILD
Maurice Edmond Charles de Rothschild (1881-1957) was the second son of Baron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), the builder of the château de Pregny. Maurice became a 'self-made' billionaire through skilled investments in the markets. He created a political career for himself, serving as a senator for the Hautes-Pyrénées from 1919 and then from 1924 of the Hautes-Alpes. He followed his father into membership of the Academy of Fine Arts, in recognition of the collecting tastes he had honed during his short spell as a picture dealer. He inherited some of the Rothschilds' finest properties: on rue du Monceau and rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris, as well as Armainvilliers and Pregny, where he died on 5 September 1957.