A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU AND BLEU TURQUIN MARBLE FIVE LIGHT CANDELABRA

The female figures of these candelabra are closely related to the classically-draped maidens supporting flower-filled baskets from a series of ‘girandoles à figures’ supplied by the bronzier François Rémond to the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre in the 1780s. The model was originally created for the duc de Penthièvre in August 1785, but perhaps the most celebrated examples were those supplied later that year to Princess Kinsky for her hôtel at 53 rue Saint Dominique, which were also on bleu turquin marble pedestals, see C. Baulez, 'Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, pp. 88-9. As Baulez points out, Rémond continued to employ such figures on candelabra into the Empire period, for instance on examples at the château de Fontainebleau, see op. cit., fig. 1.