CIRCA 1800

This pair of wall appliques is in the ‘French’ style, with female terms undoubtedly derived from the Mannerist designs of the architect and designer, Jean Bérain (1640-1711), published in his Ornemens Inventez par J. Bérain (1711). In Imperial France, in 1809, related bras de lumières were supplied by Thomire-Duterne et Cie to Napoléon at the palais de Fontainebleau (J-P. Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d’ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, pp. 140-141, figs. 112-113). The taste for French-style decorative art underwent a revival in England due to George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (d. 1830), who was passionate for all things French, and by the late 1780s was employing the services of Dominque Daguerre, the foremost Parisian marchand-mercier, in the decoration of Carlton House, London.