A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE SIX-BRANCH CANDELABRA

These candelabra with winged figures of Victory derive from a design for similar candelabra by the architect Charles Percier as part of a commission to furnish Empress Josephine's bedroom at the château de Saint-Cloud (illustrated in M.L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1991, pp. 157-160, cat. 98). The model is particularly associated with the work of Thomire, the most famous bronzier of the Empire period, and closely related examples by him in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, are illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 328, fig. 5.2.2.