Live Auction 5444Town & Country Perspectives - The Charles Plante Collection
A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE-MOUNTED VERDE ANTICO OBELISKS
Lot 311

A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE-MOUNTED VERDE ANTICO OBELISKS

ATTRIBUTED TO ANDRÉ-ANTOINE RAVRIO, ORIGINALLY WITH CANDLEARMS

Closed4 June 2008

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE-MOUNTED VERDE ANTICO OBELISKS
Attributed to André-Antoine Ravrio, originally with candlearms
Each mounted with scrolling foliage, palmettes and lyres, the base with resting eagles to the corners, above a stepped plinth with stiff-leaf cast moulding, on dragon's paw feet, the bases stamped 'TH', and with fleur-de-lys as well as '7407', 'TU' under a crown '2808', losses and replacements to the ormolu, a small section of marble at the top of each obelisk replaced
27 in. (69 cm.) high; 7½ in. (19 cm.) square (2)

Almost certainly one of a pair of candelabra delivered by Ravrio in 1806 for the Chambre à coucher du Prince in the château de Tuileries.
Almost certainly later transferred to the château de Fontainebleau, where one of the two pairs was recorded early in the 20th Century.

Specialist note

André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814).

These impressive obelisks, which originally had candlearms and are stamped with inventory numbers for the Palais des Tuileries, can almost certainly be identified with the following, delivered by Ravrio in 1806 to the Chambre à coucher du Prince in the Apartement des Enfants de France:-
2 paires de grands candélabres en pyramides à 4 lumières avec vases au milieu, socles à aigles, colonnes en marbre

Ravrio charged the remarkably high price of 2,400 francs for these, which was later reduced to 2,240.

At least one of the pairs must have been transferred subsequently to the chateau de Fontainebleau, as it is recorded there in an early 20th century photograph. Although Hessling does not identify the room at Fontainebleau in which it appears, it is possible that it is the Salon particulier de l'Empereur as the chandelier that appears in the same photograph was originally supplied for that room.