A PAIR OF EMPIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED-BRONZE FIGURAL TWO-LIGHT CANDELABRA

The design for these candelabra, with youthful African hunters, was popularised by publications such as Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's romantic novel Paul et Virginie, 1787. They relate to a caryatic clock pattern, celebrating the continent of Africa, invented in 1799 by the Parisian clock-maker Jean-Simon de Verberie of the Boulevard de Temple (De Verberie's Cahier des dessiens des Pendules is preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). A pair of identical candelabra forming a clock garniture is illustrated in J. Bourne & V. Brett, Lighting in the Domestic Interior, London, 1991, p. 158, fig. 536. Other pairs of candelabra, with minor variations in the milling of the plinths and with slightly scrolled torches, were sold at Christie's, London, 13 December 2001, lot 560 (£23,500 inc.) and Christie's, Amsterdam, 27 September 2001, lot 700 (€23,500 inc.).