BY CLAUDE-FRANCOIS RABIAT, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Claude-François Rabiat (d. 1815) was apprenticed to Etienne Vignerelle in 1769 and established as maître in 1778. He regularly provided a variety of clocks and candelabra to other accomplished bronziers and horlogers including Thomire, Feuchère and Claude Galle. An example of this practice is firmly established through a documented pair of identical candelabra delivered on 23 December 1809 by the bronzier Claude Galle for the Boudoir of the Petit Trianon at Versailles. The inventory states: 'Une Paire de Candélabras figures aillées, bronzées, sur une demi bouleé feuilles, quatre branches tete de zéphir dors en or mat. Prix demandé 600F. Règlé 590F. [sic].' These Petit Trianon candelabra are illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Grand Trianon, p.35, and H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Band II, p. 705, fig. 21.
Further information on Rabiat can be found in D. Ledoux-Lebard, 'Rabiat', L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, April 1991, p. 91.