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Lot Essay
The design for these candlesticks is closely related to those executed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonier (1675-1750) and illustrated in his Chandelier de sculpture en argent inventés par J. Meissonier of 1728, engraved as figures 10 and 12 of his oeuvre and illustrated in F. Kimball, Le Style Louis XV, p. 167, fig. 201. Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier was one of the greatest proponents of the genre pittoresque, now known as the Rococo. The son of a silversmith and sculptor, he moved to Paris in 1718 and went on to succeeded Jean Bérain II as dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi.
A closely related pair of candlesticks is in the Wallace Collection, London, reproduced in F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues, 1956, p. 21, nos. F78-79. Watson refers to a further pair in the San Donato sale, Paris, April 21, 1870, lot 1599, which may conceivably be those sold from the collection of the late Wendell Cherry, Sotheby's New York, 20 May 1994, lot 34.
Other examples executed in gilt-bronze alone are recorded: one pair from the collection of Barons Nathaniel and Alphonse de Rothschild, Vienna, was sold from the collection of Mr. Akram Ojjeh, Sotheby's Monaco, 25-26 June 1979, lot 168. Another pair, formerly in the Wrightsman Collection, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 31 October 1981, lot 254 (see also F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, 1966, no. 1267 A,B). A pair is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, no. 2.1.4., p. 103 and a further pair of near identical form but with the addition of raised nozzles and without the pierced scrolling bases employed here, was sold Christie's, London, 9 July 2015, lot 133 (£68,500).
A closely related pair of candlesticks is in the Wallace Collection, London, reproduced in F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues, 1956, p. 21, nos. F78-79. Watson refers to a further pair in the San Donato sale, Paris, April 21, 1870, lot 1599, which may conceivably be those sold from the collection of the late Wendell Cherry, Sotheby's New York, 20 May 1994, lot 34.
Other examples executed in gilt-bronze alone are recorded: one pair from the collection of Barons Nathaniel and Alphonse de Rothschild, Vienna, was sold from the collection of Mr. Akram Ojjeh, Sotheby's Monaco, 25-26 June 1979, lot 168. Another pair, formerly in the Wrightsman Collection, was sold at Sotheby's New York, 31 October 1981, lot 254 (see also F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, 1966, no. 1267 A,B). A pair is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, no. 2.1.4., p. 103 and a further pair of near identical form but with the addition of raised nozzles and without the pierced scrolling bases employed here, was sold Christie's, London, 9 July 2015, lot 133 (£68,500).