A PAIR OF NAPOLEON III SILVERED-BRONZE NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA

The coat-of-arms and motto ‘Integritas, Concordia, Industria’ belong to the German Oppenheim family. Interestingly, this is probably an early variant of their arms, in that there is a minor difference with castle towers in place of crowns. The Oppenheim banking dynasty was founded by Salomon Oppenheim who had two sons, Simon and Abraham. The family coat-of-arms incorporates a baron’s coronet for Simon Oppenheim who was created an Austrian baron in 1867 and the following year a Prussian baron, by William I. However his younger brother Abraham is known to be a client of Christofle, and it is possible that he commissioned these candelabra adopting the family arms. The present candelabra are numbered for 1866 / 1867, and a closely related pair of candelabra of this model were shown at the Exposition universelle in Paris in 1867 where it is possible that they were admired by the Oppenheims.