A pair of wall lights modelled as youths holding branches

A pair of Régence gilt bronze two-branch wall lights – circa 1720 

Height: 50 cm. (19 ¾ in.)     Width: 29.5 cm. (11 ½ in.)

Provenance

Christie’s London, 15 July 2020, lot 37

Comparative Literature

An identical pair of wall lights collected by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire is illustrated in G. De Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. II, pp. 790-791, no. 216.

Three other identical pairs were sold Christie’s Monaco, 5 December 1992, lots 71 and 72 and Christie’s Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 142.

 The design for these wall lights was probably inspired by an engraving by Gille-Marie Oppenord (d. 1742), illustrated in Livre de differentes décorations d’appartements per G M Oppenord Architecte etc., in Oeuvres de Gille Marie Oppenord… Contenant Differents Fragments d’Architecture, et d’Ornements…, Paris, circa 1725, plate CVIII.