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Lot Essay
This magnificent set of four wall-lights, with naturalistically cast stag’s heads, is identical to a pair in the château de Versailles (inv. T525c). The latter pair integrated into the French states’ collections during the Revolution when they were seized from a Noble emigré and subsequently entered Fontainebleau in 1806, and the Petit Trianon in 1868 where it was placed in Marie-Antoinette’s boudoir (illustrated in situ in G. Desjardins, Le Petit Trianon, Versailles, 1885, pl. XXI).
Wall-lights with stag’s heads were already in existence during Louis the XV’s reign, and can be found on a rocaille model by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (see Ottomeyer, H. et Pröschel, P., Vergoldete Bronzen, I, Munich, 1987, p. 109, fig. 2.2.5). Later in Louis XV’s reign, a similar naturalistically chased stag was cast on a pair of chenets by Quentin-Claude Pitoin, delivered in 1772 for Madame du Barry’s salon de Diane at Fontainebleau.
Another pair of this model is recorded, previously with Galerie Gismondi, Paris (illustrated in the 1986 catalogue); a closely related pair, undoubtedly from the same workshop and possibly en suite with the present, although with the stag’s head to the bottom of the plate, was part of the collection of George Geffroy, sold at Palais Galliera, Paris, 2 December 1971, lot 74. A pair, with identical scrolling twisted branches and sunflowers, and a tied ribbon instead of the stag's head, was part of the collection of Prince Anatoli Niklaevich Demidoff, San Donato; sold in his sale, Florence, 1880, lot 1091 (illustrated).
Wall-lights with stag’s heads were already in existence during Louis the XV’s reign, and can be found on a rocaille model by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (see Ottomeyer, H. et Pröschel, P., Vergoldete Bronzen, I, Munich, 1987, p. 109, fig. 2.2.5). Later in Louis XV’s reign, a similar naturalistically chased stag was cast on a pair of chenets by Quentin-Claude Pitoin, delivered in 1772 for Madame du Barry’s salon de Diane at Fontainebleau.
Another pair of this model is recorded, previously with Galerie Gismondi, Paris (illustrated in the 1986 catalogue); a closely related pair, undoubtedly from the same workshop and possibly en suite with the present, although with the stag’s head to the bottom of the plate, was part of the collection of George Geffroy, sold at Palais Galliera, Paris, 2 December 1971, lot 74. A pair, with identical scrolling twisted branches and sunflowers, and a tied ribbon instead of the stag's head, was part of the collection of Prince Anatoli Niklaevich Demidoff, San Donato; sold in his sale, Florence, 1880, lot 1091 (illustrated).