A PAIR OF NAPOLEON III PARCEL-GILT AND PATINATED BRONZE TORCHERES

Designs described as being in the 'Greek style' factored vastly among Barbedienne's submissions to the 1855 Paris Exposition Universelle, where the firm displayed their earliest wares modeled after the Antique. Richard Redgrave described the firm's work to be 'of great merit and beautiful execution', ultimately granting Barbedienne a médaille d'or. A single torchère, purchased at the 1855 exhibition for £44 and finished in contrasting silver-plate, is currently in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Second Empire, 1852-1870: Art in France under Napoleon III, 1978, p. 125).