A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU THREE-BRANCH WALL LIGHTS

This model's attribution to Pierre-François Feuchère is supported by several documented examples of this model featuring either two or three branches. A pair was supplied to Versailles for Thierry de Ville d'Avray, the commissaire général des Garde-Meubles de la Couronne, on September 27, 1787 for 950 livres. A version of these wall-lights was supplied by Feuchère to the cabinet de toilette of Marie-Antoinette at St. Cloud in 1787 (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, pp. 380-381, figs. 385-387). Another pair, but with different bobèches, is in the J. Paul Getty Museum (C. Bremmer-David, Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 106, cat. no. 175. While a further pair, signed Feuchère, was formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild in Vienna. Finally, a similar pair with two branches was sold from the Alexander collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 91.

Pierre-François Feuchère (1737-1823) was a member of a prominent family of gilders who, along with his father, supplied gilt-bronzes to various members of the Royal family. Feuchère received his maîtrise in the guild of ciseleurs-doreurs in 1767. The Feuchères survived the vicissitudes of the Revolution and continued their successful business through the Empire and Restauration periods, selling stock from their manufactory in 1824 and 1829.