ATTRIBUTED TO LUIGI VALADIER, ROME, CIRCA 1775

Although these candlesticks were previously thought to be Northern European, the delicate tendrils on the bases are more typical of the work of the Roman silversmith and bronzier, Luigi Valadier (1726-1785). Similar tendrils can be found on a bust of Triton by Valadier in the Louvre, see A. González-Palacios, Luigi Valadier, New York, 2018, p. 189, fig. 4_57. For an ormolu-mounted white marble candelabrum with a base conceived similarly as that of the present lot, see ibid., p. 237, fig. 5_28. Luigi Valadier was member of a dynasty of goldsmiths, sculptors and craftsmen that began with his father, Andrea, who had come to Rome from Provence in 1714. Luigi was apprenticed to his father until 1754, when he was sent to Paris for further training, and finally took over his father's workshop in 1759. He was the most celebrated Roman metalworker of his period, numbering among his clients the Borghese, Chigi and Braschi-Onesti families, for whom he supplied finely crafted objects in a number of different fields including bronzes, furniture and pietre dure. His son Giuseppe (1762-1839) concentrated more on architectural commissions, but also supplied furniture to Pope Pius VI, Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti and Prince Camillo Borghese.