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A PAIR OF ITALIAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WHITE MARBLE THREE-LIGHT VASE CANDELABRA

BY GIUSEPPE VALADIER, ROME, CIRCA 1795

Details
A PAIR OF ITALIAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WHITE MARBLE THREE-LIGHT VASE CANDELABRA
BY GIUSEPPE VALADIER, ROME, CIRCA 1795
Each amphora-form vase mounted with a square-section handle terminating in outswept arrowheads, the body mounted with a pierced frieze centred by flowerheads and a stiff-leaf foliate waist, issuing a foliate cup supporting three reeded S-shaped branches supporting foliate collars and moulded bobeches, the socle on a square base above a circular plinth mounted with rams' heads joined by laurel swags, above a beaded border on a conforming black Belgian marble stepped base, on a square white marble and associated verde antico plinth
22 in. (56 cm.) high; 11 in. (28 cm.) wide
Literature
P. Ward-Jackson, Italian Drawings Volume II, 17th-18th century, London, 1980, p. 182 ;
A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tiempo del Gusto, Milan, 1984, vol. I, p. 136 and vol. II, p. 123, fig. 165 ;
A. Gonzalez-Palacios, L'oro di Valadier. Un genio nella Roma del Settecento, exhibition catalogue presented at the Académie de France in Rome, Villa Medici, 29 January to 8 April 1997, p. 129, cat. n°27 and pl. XXIII.

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Lot Essay

Our pair of candelabras can be compared with an ornamental drawing by Giuseppe Valadier in the Victoria & Albert Museum (D.1532-1898). It is found under the letter B, reproduced and described: "Vase & pedestal white marble gilt bronze ornaments ... 60". From this page of ornaments, the model from which our pair originates is listed as the most expensive made by Valadier. There is simply a slight variation in the handles stopping lower for ours. This design was sent by Charles Heathcote Tatham to Henry Holland, then adviser to the Prince of Wales on many of his purchases. It shows that the elegance and finesse of these candelabras appealed even to the royal courts.

A very similar candelabra was sold at Sotheby's Addiction | Benjamin Steinitz, Paris, 23 July 2020, lot 112. However, unlike ours, it was incomplete, lacking the column base decorated with ram heads.

The Valadier family was the best-known and most famous dynasty of goldsmiths and founders in Rome in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Giuseppe Valadier (1762-1839) took over the workshop of his father Luigi (1726-1785) and continued in his father's footsteps. Luigi was renowned for having worked extensively for the papal court, in particular for the mounts in the Vatican's cameo collection. It was therefore natural that Giuseppe was appointed head of the Vatican foundry and goldsmith of the Sacra Palazzo Apostolico in 1781. As a bronzemaker, he worked in a style similar to that of his father, a classicism of great sobriety but also great refinement. One of his most famous Roman neoclassical pieces is a bronze table resting on twelve statues modelled by Vincenzo Pacetti (now in the Vatican Library). After 1817, he abandoned the creation of objets d'art and turned exclusively to architecture. The care taken by Giuseppe Valadier to ensure the harmony and balance of his objets d'art, such as our candelabras, can be linked to his taste and talent for architecture, which enabled him to see his creations as part of a coherent whole in which the objects responded to the architecture.