Live Auction 2473500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
A PAIR OF FRENCH WALNUT TORCHERES
Lot 269 THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (LOT 269)

A PAIR OF FRENCH WALNUT TORCHERES

ONE EARLY LOUIS XV CIRCA 1740, THE OTHER 19TH CENTURY

Closed20 October 2011

Price Realised

USD 30,000

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A PAIR OF FRENCH WALNUT TORCHERES
ONE EARLY LOUIS XV CIRCA 1740, THE OTHER 19TH CENTURY
Each with circular rest on a leaf-carved support and scrolled supports carved with masks and floral sprays and joined by pod finials, on a double C-scroll base and scrolled feet carved with shells and floral sprays, variations to carving
69 in. (175 cm.) high, 28 in. (71.5 cm.) diameter, the bases (2)

Specialist note

These extremely grand -- and impressively sized -- torcheres relate very closely to a design by Jacques-François Blondel (1705-1774), a leading ornementaliste and designer at the court of Louis XV and the nephew of the architect François Blondel (1683-1756). The design for 'torchères pour la décoration des appartements' appears as plate 94 in the second volume of his 1737-8 treatise De la Distribution des maisons de plaisance. And the right-hand design of this plate was clearly the inspiration for the original torchere of the present pair.