A pair of Italian bronze and gilt-bronze candlesticks, attributed to Francesco Righetti, Roman late 18th Century

one in the form of a standing male bacchic figure with a vine leaf and grape headdress with drapery over his arm and a rose in his right hand, the other in the form of a standing neo-classical female figure in drapery, with a fruit and floral head dress and a rose in her left hand, each holding a fruit-filled cornucopia enclosing a candle-nozzle on circular bases cast with lunettes 

Some very minor rubbing to bronze and gilt-bronze, the casting of which is a good quality. There is a casting crack above the right knee at the back of the male figure. There is a drill hole in the back of the left calf of female figure. The bases formerly drilled for electricity. In overall good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Comparative Literature

Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, Ristudiando i Righetti  in Antologia di belle Arti, Il neoclassicismo, III, Allemandi, 1992, pp. 17 and 24, figs. 11 and 12.
Alvar Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto, Roma e il Regno delle Due Sicilie, Vol. II, Milano, 1984, page 129, fig. 278.
Hugh Honour, Some Italian Bronzes of the Eighteenth Century, Apollo, 1963, pp.194-200.

The present pair of candlesticks, can confidently be attributed to the hand of Francesco Righetti (Rome, 1749-1819) on the basis of a stylistic comparison with identical figures which appear on the celebrated pair of candelabra in the Quirinal Palace by the same bronze maker, which are dated 1797 (Fig. 1). 

Draped figures holding a candelabrum in the form of a cornucopia also appear in a drawing, from the same workshop, by the young Luigi Righetti (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, op cit.,1992,  page 25, fig. 13).

Finally it is worth referring to a drawing, by another great neoclassical Roman bronzier, Giuseppe Boschi which represents a classical draped figure holding an identical candelabrum with very similar hair arrangement to that existing on the present pair of candlesticks (the drawing is preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by A.Gonzalez-Palacios, op. cit., 1984 page 1239, fig. 278).

Francesco Righetti (1749-1819) was a pupil of the leading 18^th century Roman goldsmith Luigi Valadier. In the late 1780's in Rome, a new development seems to have taken place in the commercial production of small bronze copies for the Grand Tourists and Righetti soon became a leading figure in this and his foundry even produced a catalogue in 1794. He produced a wide variety of pieces, very often not signed, including copies of many antique and modern statues, busts, vases,....at a price attractive to the ordinary gentleman traveller.

Quite significantly the 1794 catalogue was written in French, which suggest that many of the bronzes he produced were destined for foreign collectors. In the list, amongst other objects sevety-eight single figures are mentioned and most interestingly he notes:' ceux qui desideront faire garner des Deserts, des Horologes, des vases, des urnes, des obelisques et d'autres objets avec des ornemens en bronze dans le gout antique et les avoir dores a differentes couleurs, imitant parfaitement les belles dorures France, pourront etre pleinement satisfaits dans le meme attelier' ( H.Honour, op.cit., pg 197).

These words clearly show how the same bronze figures could have been adapted differently depending on the objects, as it is clearly demonstrated by the present pair and the pair of candelabra at the Quirinal.

The work of Righetti and his vast workshop, did not only appeal the ordinary travellers though. Notable collectors like the English banker Henry Hope, the local Roman aristocracy, Pope Pius VII, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, Catherine II, Empress of Russia are just a few of his many admirers and collectors.