A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU NINE-LIGHT CANDELABRA

Of intricate design, these candelabra are related to the œuvres of two leading eighteenth-century craftsmen of the Ancien Régime. The caryatid-set stems and stiff-leaf cast bases relate to a pair of candlesticks in a design by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (1749-1825), architecte et dessinateur du Cabinet de Monsieur Frère du Roi, dated to 1790, today in the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris (inv. CD 2703) and illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 287, fig. 4.15.6. Two further candelabra with the similar stems and candlearms to the present lot are attributed to Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813), and are illustrated in., op. cit., p. 208, pl. XXV, and p. 258, fig. 4.7.10, the later dated to circa 1780. Owing to its unusual and luxurious design, the present form was, like others of similar renown and style, reproduced in the 19th century to meet an ever-growing international demand for works of art created for the foremost patrons of the previous century.