Each modelled as a pair of classical maidens bearing a vine and acanthus leaf vase issuing a central shaft entwined with vine leaves and surmounted by a pinecone finial, the four foliate wrapped spirally-reeded candle branches with palmette cast nozzles and beaded bobèche, on an oval base decorated with a frieze of putti on a boar hunt above an oak leaf moulding on a square plinth with re-entrant corners inset with a scrolling foliate frieze and with flowerheads to the angles, on toupie feet
36¹⁄₄ in. (92 cm.) high; 9¹⁄₄ in. (23.5 cm.) wide; 7 in. (18 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, 10 December 1993, lot 222.

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Lot Essay

This elegant pair of candelabra is a fine example of the synergy of design, sculpture and bronze-work in Paris in the late 18th century and exhibits the unparalleled levels achieved in each of these disciplines at the time.

The arrangement of two maidens is based on a drawing by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (Paris, 1761) as illustrated in O. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, pl. XXVII. Aubin’s drawing is based on a plaster model by Etienne-Maurice Falconet, director of Sculpture at the Sevrès Manufactory, which he exhibited at the Grand Salon du Louvre in the same year. The model was intended to be cast in silver by Thomas-Francois Germain (‘Deux Grouppes de femmes en platre ce sont des chandeliers pour être exécutés en argent’).

A pair virtually identical to the present model and with the same distinctive marble base and bronze figures but without the pearl moulding, formerly in the collections of Rudolphe Kann and Hubert de Saint Senoch, was most recently sold from the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson; Sotheby’s, Paris, 15 October 2003, lot 98 (€49,750).
There are a number of candelabra based on the same Falconet design but with variations to the bases and candlearms. These include pairs in the Residenz Museum, Munich, originally acquired by the duc des Deux-Ponts for the Hotel de Deux-Ponts, Strasbourg (op.cit., pp. 254-5, figs. 4.7.2), the Wallace Collection, London (F136 and 137) and four in the Warsaw Royal Palace, probably acquired by King Stanislas Auguste Poniatowski (d. 1798) (ibid., fig. 4.7.3).