A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU THREE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS
Lot 50

A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU THREE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS

AFTER A DESIGN BY JEAN-LOUIS PRIEUR, CIRCA 1765-70

Closed17 April 2024

Price Realised

USD 18,900

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A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU THREE-LIGHT WALL-LIGHTS
AFTER A DESIGN BY JEAN-LOUIS PRIEUR, CIRCA 1765-70
Each with flaming urn finials with festooned laurel leaves, the backplate with a standing putto holding twin laurel festoons with acanthus-cast scrolling arms
21 ¼ in. (54 cm.) high, 12 in. (30.5 cm.) wide

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 31 October 1987, lot 46.

Specialist note

These impressive wall lights embody the sober, architectural style of the first wave of neo-classicism of the 1760's known as the goût grec. They derive from a drawing by Jean-Louis Prieur for a wall light similarly centred by a putto.

Prieur, who became maître sculpteur in 1765 and maître-fondeur en terre et sable in 1769, was an influential ornemaniste in the new classical style. He is perhaps best known for a series of drawings he supplied for the execution of furniture and gilt-bronzes for the Polish Court at Warsaw in 1766, one of the most important neo-classical commissions of the time. Prieur also supplied a series of architectural gilt-bronzes to Chartres Cathedral.

Other examples of this distinguished model include pairs sold from the Steinitz collection, Christie's, New York, 19 October 2007, lot 63 (sold $73,000), the collection of Mme C. Lelong, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 27 April-1 May 1903, lot 334 and from the collection of Joseph Bardac, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 9 December 1927, lot 80.