A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU THREE-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS

Designed in the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style popularized by Juste-Auréle Meissonier and Nicolas Pineau, these wall-lights are inspired by models initially designed by Charles Cressent (1685-1768). Cressent was both a leading ébéniste and sculptor of his time, and his furniture pieces were marked by their highly sculptural and elaborate ormolu mounts. However, the skilled polymath constantly had difficulties with the Parisian guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop.

Wall-lights similar to the present lot were subsequently known to have been supplied by the sculpteur, fondeur et ciseleur du roi Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755). In the inventory drawn up following his death in 1755, no. 43 was described as un autre model double de bras de chemine ancien perroquets à deux branches, and this model was already listed in an earlier inventory of his stock in 1747.

Two related pairs of parrot wall-lights were supplied to Madame Infante, Louise-Elizabeth of France, duchesse de Parma for the Palazzo di Colorno (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, no. 52, p.243). And a set of four Cressent originals can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1974.356.133–.136).