A RUSSIAN ORMOLU AND CUT-GLASS EIGHT-BRANCH CHANDELIER

This bold ormolu and cut-glass chandelier is closely related to a chandelier in the Alexandrinsky Theatre, which was executed by Alexandre Guérin circa 1828. Both chandeliers have distinctive scroll branches with flattened tops, a feature apparently unique to Guérin, and the present example was almost certainly also executed by the latter around this date (I. Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers, St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 174).
Guérin, who practised as a bronzier in St. Petersburg from the 1810s to 1848, worked in a sophisticated Empire style, closely relying on French designs, with various fashionable models clearly inspired by the work of Pierre-Philippe Thomire (I. Sychev, Russian Bronze, Moscow, 2003, p. 111).