Details
Each modelled as an Egyptian caryatid with falcon heapiece and ringlet wig supporting ten ormolu candle-branches in two tiers with anthemion bands and cast scrolled acanthus leaves surmounted with a flame finial, the model standing on a stepped square marble base with central ormolu mounts of crows flanking a figural symbol, each with later patinated metal pedestals
Each light 51 in. (129 cm.) high; plinths 21 in. (54 cm) high
Special notice
Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square ( ¦ ) not collected from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Crozier Park Royal (details below). Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite.If the lot is transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection from 12.00pm on the second business day following the sale.Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only.Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com.If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Lot Essay

Charles Percier designed identical figural models as upright supports for a console table in 1802, for which the original pen and ink drawing can be found in the Louvre (RF30630). For an illustration of the design see H. Ottomeyer and P. Proschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, fig. 5.3.4. p. 336.
Ottomeyer and Proschel also illustrate one of a pair of candelabra stamped by Thomire, again with identical bronze figural supports, ibid. fig 5.3.3. p. 336. Compare also the console table delivered by Thomire and Duterne in 1812 to the Garde Meuble, again with identical bronze figures and now in the Grand Trianon (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Inventaire Général du Musée Nationale de Versailles et des Trianons, I, Le Grand Trianon, Meubles et Objets dArt, pp. 20-21). A pair of candelabra with identical figural supports and stamped by Thomire was shown by the Galerie Gismondi in the Biennale des Antiquaires de Monaco, July/August 1991. Another pair with same figures and ormolu mounted pedestal was sold from the Michael Inchbald Collection, Christie’s London, 22 January 2014, lot 136 (£434,500).
Another pair of candelabra by Thomire was part of the imperial furniture collection of the Château de Saint-Cloud around 1828, in the salon des jeux of the Charles X apartments and now in the Garde-Meuble, with identical female bronze models (J. M. Humbert, et al, Egyptomania, 1994, p. 286).
Many of the examples seen have contrasting gilt-bronze parts for the clothing and the headpiece. The closest comparable pair by Thomire featuring the same fully patinated bronze female support, with a different arrangement of candle-branches, would be the pair delivered to Czar Paul I, in the nouveau cabinet de travail of the Pavlovsk Palace’s ground floor (A. Kuchmov, Pavlovsk, Palace and Park, 1975, pp. 176, 178 and 180). Another related pair with fully patinated bronze body, was sold as from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy at Christie’s Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 39.

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