A PAIR OF LOUIS XVIII ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE THREE-BRANCH CANDELABRA

The pose and design of the figures on these candelabra closely match the figures in the margin sketch in the 1761 livret of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, see H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschl, et al, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 254, fig. 4.7.1. Although they do not match the drawn figures exactly, their derivation from the same source is highly probable. Saint-Aubin's sketch was of a pair of plaster candelabra models exhibited at the Salon in 1761 by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-91), then Director of the Sculpture Studio at the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory (1759-66). These plaster bozetti were intended to be cast in silver by the orfèvre François-Thomas Germain (1726-91), who had taken over the workshop and royal appointment of his illustrious father, Thomas Germain, upon the latter's death.