A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE AND VERT DE MER MARBLE FOUR-BRANCH CANDELABRA

The design for this model by Pierre-Philippe Thomire appears in an album purchased by A. Potovtzov in Paris in 1801 for the Baron Stieglitz Museum in St. Petersburg. This pair shows many similarities with that preserved at the Hermitage, see Y. Zek, Les Bronzes Décoratifs de Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), Musée de l'Ermitage, Leningrad, 1984, p. 25, no. 20. A pair of candelabra with different base and with gilt griffins but otherwise identical and of the same dimensions is at Buckingham Palace, see J. Harris, Buckingham Palace and Its Treasures, London, 1968. p. 155. The pair in Her Majesty’s collection was supplied by the famed marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux whom Thomire often supplied with bronzes.