A pair of Louis XVI gilt-bronze three-light candelabra “au putto”, circa 1775-1780, after a model by Louis-Simon Boizot and the bronzier François Rémond

Possibly delivered to Tzar Paul Ier (1754-1801) for the château St Michel and then to Pavlosk Palace;

Galerie Kugel, Paris;

Sale Paris, Neret-Minet & Tessier, 21 November 2008, lot 71.

La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, n° 37, 31 October 2008, illustr. cover and p. 5.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Baulez, "Essai sur l'oeuvre décoratif de Louis-Simon Boizot. Les bronziers Gouthière, Thomire et Rémond" in Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809), exhibition catalog, Paris, 2001.

This pair of candelabra both emphasises and compliments the quality of craftsmanship between the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot and the celebrated bronzier François Rémond who created masterpieces under the supervision of Dominique Daguerre, one of the most important marchand-mercier at the end of the 18th century. The candelabra were probably kept in the Imperial Russian collection until the Soviet government sold many objects during the early years of 1930 to recover funds. 

Christian Baulez attributes this model, created in around 1785 and at the instigation of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, to the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) and the bronzier François Rémond (1747-1812).

Rémond invoiced Daguerre for an amount of 3,200 livres for the first four girandoles. The merchant may have intended them for the financier Joseph Micault d'Harvelay (1723-1786), grand-nephew of Jean Pâris de Montmartel and Keeper of the Royal Treasury: his inventory after his death at the Château de Chessy mentions "deux paires de girandoles, sujets d'enfants, qui tiennent des cors de chasse ; les enfants en bronze et le reste des ornements en cuivre doré, le tout posé sur un socle de marbre, prisé 2 400 livres", (see C. Baulez op. cit., p. 293-294).

In 1782, the trip to France by Tsarevich Paul and his wife Maria Feodorovna, known as the Count and Countess du Nord, was an opportunity for the future sovereigns to accumulate a number of works of art to decorate their various residences in St Petersburg. In her Memoirs, Madame d'Oberkirch, a childhood friend of the Countess du Nord, mentions the gifts given by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette - in particular the famous Sèvres porcelain toilet - but also the acquisition fever that drove the distinguished visitors to Daguerre and a number of suppliers: ‘« En sortant de la comédie, nous retournâmes dans les boutiques, en particulier chez les ébénistes et les quincailliers “ (Baronne d'Oberkirch, Mémoires, Paris, 2000, p. 234).

Vincenzo Brenna, architect to the Count, was responsible for placing orders with French merchants established in Saint Petersburg, such as Barthélémy Defarge and André Scholtzen: on 13 August 1798, the latter delivered « deux girandoles à trois lumières représentant des Enfants nus portant des cors de chasse formant trois bobèches dorées au mat sur des piédouches de même garnis d’attributs de chasse », intended to decorate the Château Michel that the Tsar inaugurated on 1 February 1801 (I. Zek, ‘Bronzes d'ameublement et meubles français achetés par Paul Ier pour le Château Saint-Michel de Saint-Pétersbourg en 1798-1799’ in Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français, 1994, p. 158).

The furnishings from the Château Saint-Michel were later dispersed to various residences, including the Winter, Strelna, Tauride and Pavlovsk palaces (E. Ducamp, Pavlovsk, Les collections, Paris, 1993, t. II, p. 178). The identical composition of our candelabra - and not ‘en regard’ - probably indicates that they were originally part of a suite of four. A pair of this model is still preserved at Pavlovsk in the Salon of Peace, at the entrance to Maria Feodorovna's apartments. It is possible that during inventories carried out after the 1917 Revolution, the suite of candelabras was accidentally divided into two identical pairs. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet government took a large number of works of art from Imperial palaces and sold them in Leningrad and Berlin to the Rudolpf Lepke gallery or, more confidentially, through the Antiquariat department. The other pair is still in Pavlovsk.

A pair, also with gilt-bronze putti looking to the right, belonged to the Sigismond Bardac and then Dillée collections and was sold by Sotheby's in Paris on 18 and 19 March 2015, lot 127. Another pair ‘en regard’ resting on cylindrical bases in griotte red marble from the Erik Le Caruryer de Beauvais collection was sold by Sotheby's in Paris on 31 March 2017, lot 80.