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Lot Essay
The female figure featured on the present pair derives from an 1802 design by Charles Percier for a console table in the Egyptian taste with uprights in the form of an almost identical female caryatid (H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 336, fig. 5.3.1).
Circa 1805, the noted bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire adapted the model as a pair of candelabra with candlearms issuing from each figure's head. A pair recorded in the château de Saint-Cloud as of 1828 was obviously admired by Louis-Philippe and his family, as later inventories record the same pair in various rooms of the personal apartments and at the chateau de Compiègne. In 1909, they were moved into storage at the Hôtel de Salm, Paris in the Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d'Honneur.
Circa 1805, the noted bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire adapted the model as a pair of candelabra with candlearms issuing from each figure's head. A pair recorded in the château de Saint-Cloud as of 1828 was obviously admired by Louis-Philippe and his family, as later inventories record the same pair in various rooms of the personal apartments and at the chateau de Compiègne. In 1909, they were moved into storage at the Hôtel de Salm, Paris in the Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d'Honneur.