A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU FIVE-BRANCH CANDELABRA

The quality and large scale of these candelabra indicate an origin in Germany, most probably in the South, in the second half of the 18th century. The rococo movement was received with great enthusiasm in this part of Germany which took advantage of its proximity to France to import Parisian ideas as well as craftsmen. Metal-working had a strong and long-established tradition in the region with the bronziers, silversmiths and goldsmiths of Augsburg being some of the most skilled artisans in Europe, capable of producing gueridons and tables of massive scale and complexity. The electoral and princely courts in Munich, Ludwigsburg and Würzburg embraced the rococo style from the 1730s onwards and often translated it into a larger and more extravagant form than its French origin. The movement also retained its popularity much longer than in France as the date of the present lot illustrates. The Dukes of Württemberg and Electors of Bavaria were hiring French-trained bronziers and sculptors such as Guillelmus de Groff (1676-1742) as early as 1716. Indeed Southern Germany became one of the few areas outside Paris to have success in the art of gilt-bronze with de Groff’s workshop being one of the first to achieve renown in this field.