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Lot Essay
Exquisitely chased and cast with sinuous and innovative pierced motifs, this pair of ormolu wall-lights are on a grand and luxurious scale, comparable to the renowned "Sculpteur, Fondeur et Ciseleur du Roi" Jacques Caffieri’s (1678–1755) most important commissions. Measuring some 80 cm. high, they are among the larger models of wall-lights known and comparable to wall-lights commissioned from Caffieri for Louise Élisabeth of France, Duchess of Parma and daughter of Louis XV, for her palace in Colorno, as well as to those commissioned by Madame de Pompadour.
This celebrated group of wall-lights incorporate the distinctive pierced motifs, the ‘frises à oves percés’ mentioned in Caffieri’s posthumous inventory, which recurs on several works supplied for the Duchess of Parma's palace, as well as two chandeliers now preserved in the Wallace Collection (inv. no. F83 and F84). These include a pair of wall-lights for Colorno formerly in the Collection Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares, sold Christie’s, Paris, 23 September 2026, lot 8, as well as related twin-branch wall-lights now in the Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 10410 and OA 10411), together with a similar pair sold at Christie’s, London, 29 October 2025, lot 138. Another pair of comparable wall-lights made by Caffieri for Colorno was formerly in the celebrated collection of Hubert de Givenchy, sold Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 34 (1.33 million French francs).
The Design
With their scrolling foliate form, these wall-lights have been conceived in the pittoresque style disseminated through the designs of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Nicolas Pineau. This aesthetic concept celebrated natural forms worthy of representation through their exceptional, curious, colourful or exotic appearance, and found expression in sinuous compositions animated by abundant curves. The royal privilege granted to Jacques Caffieri around 1715 exempted him from many guild restrictions; simultaneously sculptor, bronze founder and chaser, he enjoyed a perfect freedom of invention. What he achieved in the early 1750s, at the apex of his career, was a remarkable balance between the realism of natural foliage and the abstraction of movement.
With the fluidity and naturalism of his chasing, which records every vein and fold of the acanthus leaf, Caffieri imposed an abstraction of form, a perfection of curve and counter-curve that idealised and surpassed nature itself. Every upward movement on one side is immediately balanced by a downward accent on the other, while every elongated or regular form is subtly disrupted by a controlled asymmetry.
The Provenance
In the 20th century these wall-lights were part of the celebrated collection of Antenor Patiño, son of Simon, the Bolivian tin tycoon known as the King of Tin, who like his sister Graziella, had a passion for the opulence of French 18th century decorative arts, with a focus on the Regence and Louis XV periods. He amassed a prestigious private collection across his Portuguese, New York and Parisian homes, and donated generously to museums. In the 1960s his estate, the Quinta Patiño in Estoril, Portugal, was a hub of the international social scene, playing host to a series of famous parties. Patiño and his wife Beatriz commissioned the celebrated interior designer François Catroux to decorate their 5th Avenue apartment in the 1980s, marking a change in approach to the decoration of their previous homes.
This celebrated group of wall-lights incorporate the distinctive pierced motifs, the ‘frises à oves percés’ mentioned in Caffieri’s posthumous inventory, which recurs on several works supplied for the Duchess of Parma's palace, as well as two chandeliers now preserved in the Wallace Collection (inv. no. F83 and F84). These include a pair of wall-lights for Colorno formerly in the Collection Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares, sold Christie’s, Paris, 23 September 2026, lot 8, as well as related twin-branch wall-lights now in the Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 10410 and OA 10411), together with a similar pair sold at Christie’s, London, 29 October 2025, lot 138. Another pair of comparable wall-lights made by Caffieri for Colorno was formerly in the celebrated collection of Hubert de Givenchy, sold Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 34 (1.33 million French francs).
The Design
With their scrolling foliate form, these wall-lights have been conceived in the pittoresque style disseminated through the designs of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Nicolas Pineau. This aesthetic concept celebrated natural forms worthy of representation through their exceptional, curious, colourful or exotic appearance, and found expression in sinuous compositions animated by abundant curves. The royal privilege granted to Jacques Caffieri around 1715 exempted him from many guild restrictions; simultaneously sculptor, bronze founder and chaser, he enjoyed a perfect freedom of invention. What he achieved in the early 1750s, at the apex of his career, was a remarkable balance between the realism of natural foliage and the abstraction of movement.
With the fluidity and naturalism of his chasing, which records every vein and fold of the acanthus leaf, Caffieri imposed an abstraction of form, a perfection of curve and counter-curve that idealised and surpassed nature itself. Every upward movement on one side is immediately balanced by a downward accent on the other, while every elongated or regular form is subtly disrupted by a controlled asymmetry.
The Provenance
In the 20th century these wall-lights were part of the celebrated collection of Antenor Patiño, son of Simon, the Bolivian tin tycoon known as the King of Tin, who like his sister Graziella, had a passion for the opulence of French 18th century decorative arts, with a focus on the Regence and Louis XV periods. He amassed a prestigious private collection across his Portuguese, New York and Parisian homes, and donated generously to museums. In the 1960s his estate, the Quinta Patiño in Estoril, Portugal, was a hub of the international social scene, playing host to a series of famous parties. Patiño and his wife Beatriz commissioned the celebrated interior designer François Catroux to decorate their 5th Avenue apartment in the 1980s, marking a change in approach to the decoration of their previous homes.