CIRCA 1715, IN THE MANNER OF ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE

These superb wall-lights closely relate to designs by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) preserved in his Nouveaux desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, chez Mariette, presumed to have been published around 1715. Several elements of their design featured in this receuil, such as the distinctive curling upper branch supporting a drip-pan with a berried boss, the idiosyncratic design of the campana-shaped foliate-cast nozzles and the asymmetric choice of drip-pans of each branch. Similar wall-lights can be seen flanking the mirror in the celebrated painting by Jean-François de Troy, La Lecture de Molière (sold from the Cholmondeley Collection at Houghton Hall, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 147).
A closely-related pair of wall-lights attributed to Boulle and of the same model although without the additional berries to the lower area of the backplate, were sold at Christie's, London, 19 May 2021, lot 2 (£40,000).