A PAIR OF MONUMENTAL PATINATED AND GILT-BRONZE NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA ON GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED FLUTED WHITE MARBLE COLUMNS, 19TH CENTURY

By repute, Rothschild Collection (according to purchase invoice)

Bernard Steinitz, Paris

The motif of a winged cherub raising a finger to his lips to demand silence was extremely popular in late 18th-century decorative arts and derived from Etienne-Maurice Falconet's iconic sculpture of a seated cupid L'Amour menaçant commissioned by Madame de Pompadour for the Hôtel d'Evreux (Paris, Louvre). Candelabra with branches in the from of lily stems also figured prominently in Louis XVI gilt bronze work and began appearing from c.1765-70, such as on a pair of candelabra in the form of three standing putti supporting lily branches attributed to Jean-Louis Prieur in the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London 1996, Vol.III, no.239). Models from this period were often reproduced or reinterpreted in the 19th century, often on a monumental scale as seen in the offered lot, by Paris sculptors and bronze foundries such as Denière, Beurdeley, Barbedienne and Victor Paillard.