A PAIR OF FRENCH ORMOLU FOUR-LIGHT CANDELABRA

These candelabra (girandoles à sphinx et têtes de beliers) are modelled directly after the celebrated model by André-Charles Boulle, ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur et Sculpteur du roi, circa 1672-1732 and after a design by Jean Bérain (1638-1711), who had trained under Charles le Brun and was Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi from 1675. Two versions of these are known with either four or five candle branches and J.N. Ronfort cites a mid-18th century reference to a pair with four branches listed in the inventory taken after the death of Marin de la Haye in 1753 (see J.N. Ronfort, 'André-Charles Boulle: die Bronzearbeiten und seine Werkstatt im Louvre', in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, pp. 459-520).