A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU TWIN-LIGHT WALL-APPLIQUES

This present pair of wall lights in the 'goût Grec' style is based upon the celebrated Louis XVI caryatid applique attributed to Robert-Joseph Auguste, maître-orfèvre from 1757-1801. The model is undoubtedly inspired by the designs of Jean-François Forty in his 1768 work l'Usage des Orfèvres et des Fondeurs, which includes, in the Cahier des six lustres, a chandelier featuring a closely related siren supporting foliate branches (D. Guilmard, Les maîtres ornemanistes, 1880, vol. I. p. 240). Versions of the applique from the eighteenth-century appear in the musée des Arts décoratifs and the Wrightsman Collection (see. F. J. B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, pp. 418-19, n. 231).