A SET OF FOUR FRENCH ORMOLU THREE-LIGHT WALL-APPLIQUES

The design of these wall appliques à cors de chasse (lots 129-131) is based upon the Louis XVI model by Gallien and Bureaux, which features a ribbon-tied bow-knot backplate hung with oak leaves and three hunting-horn shaped candlearms, suspending tassels and a stag's foot. A set of four Empire wall-lights based on the Gallien/Bureaux model were supplied for the Grand Salon at the Petit Trianon, Versailles by the bronzier Claude Galle on 23 December 1809 at a cost of 2,960 livres (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Versailles, Le Petit Trianon - Le mobilier des inventaires de 1807, 1810 et 1839, Paris, 1989, pp. 97-98).

Visible to the reverse of the backplates to some of these wall-lights is the faint 'MB' stamp for 'Millet Bronzier'. That this stamp is indistinct, suggests that it probably featured to the bronze master model and that these wall-lights were previously cast by Maison Millet. The 'HV' stamp is more sharply cast indicating that this model was subsequently produced by Henri Vian who could have conceivably bought the master model from one of the four dispersal sales of Millet's stock held at Drouot, each of them lasting several days, following Théodore Millet's death in 1905.

Please see lot 146 for a note on Henri Vian.