A FRENCH ORMOLU NINE-LIGHT CHANDELIER

Cast with asymmetrical scrolled acanthus, birds and cherubs, this sculptural chandelier reprises the famous pair attributed to Jean-Jacques Caffieri and executed around 1750 for Madame de Pompadour, one of which was in her bedroom, the other in le Grand cabinet of l’hôtel d’Évreux, the future palais de l’Elysée. The pair were confiscated during the Revolution and today hang in the Bibliothèque Mazarine at the Palais de l'institut de France (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe siècle, Picard, 1987, p. 288, fig. 324). Also compare a chandelier signed and dated Caffieri Paris 1751 in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, Vol. III, London, 1996, p. 1311, cat. no. 265, F83).