THE ORMOLU CIRCA 1750, THE PORCELAIN LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

These candelabra demonstrate the unique creative involvement of the marchands merciers in eighteenth-century Paris, an industry discussed in depth by Carolyn Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth Century, London, 1996. The combination of French gilt bronze and Japanese porcelain is a brilliant assemblage of distinct elements of the marchands’ stock. They represent the innovation of design and combination of materials which only they were uniquely allowed to execute, as the guild regulations further prohibited production by the marchands merciers to only the sale, embellishment or finishing of goods. According to Sargentson, Japanese and Chinese porcelains were distinguished from one another in most inventories of the 1720s and 30s, and the marchand Thomas-Joachim Herbert stocked a particularly large proportion of the more valuable Japanese porcelain. In addition to the relative scarcity of Japanese porcelain, according to the 1724 inventory of Hebert's porcelain, Chinese porcelain was on average less highly valued. Japanese objects were valued at an average of 12 livres each, and Chinese objects at an average of 8 livres each, see ibid., pp. 70-72. Incorporating Qing dynasty export porcelain animals in luxurious objets montés was highly fashionable at the time the present lot was assembled. Due to their exotic appearance, birds of prey and parrots were among the most used avian figures, whereas cockerels were far less common, which makes this pair of candelabra particularly unusual. A comparable pair of candelabra with Japanese porcelain cockerel figures was sold Christie’s, London, 6 December 2007, lot 29.