CAST BY P. VAN MONS ET CIE, AFTER A MODEL BY JACQUES-LOUIS GAUTIER, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Jacques-Louis Gautier, born in Paris on 13 December 1831, pupil of François Rude (d. 1855), and exhibited at the Salon from 1850 to 1868 (S. Lami, Dictionnaires Sculpteurs de l’ecole Française au dix-neuvième siècle, Paris, 1919, pp. 25-27). Gautier executed a significant number of models, produced by leading bronze foundries; in 1858, a Louis XVI vase decorated with diverse ornaments and four bas-reliefs representing l’Ivresse, l’Amour, les Ris et l’Eau, executed by Christofle, and the same year a design for small vases again with bas-reliefs in the Etruscan style, executed by M. Perrot for Maison Barbedienne. The bronze foundry responsible for the present torchères is P. Van Mons et Cie, 11 rue Harlay, Paris. Very little is known regarding the production of this firm, however a 16-page catalogue, published in 1865, Exposition des arts appliqués à l’industrie: exposition de la maison P. Van Mons et Cie…: étude historique par Louis Richard whilst not including the present torchères makes several references to Gautier suggesting a frequent collaboration between sculptor and foundry. Other foundries such as Barbedienne and MM. Miroy Frères, of Paris, were producing similar style lamps to the present examples inspired by Greek antiquity including a tripod lamp-stand by the latter exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exposition universelle (p. 59).