Page 79 - Pascal Izarn catalogue 2022
P. 79
A PAIR OF LARGE LOUIS XVI GILT BRONZE THREE-
LIGHT APPLIQUES – CIRCA 1775-1780
Height: 54.5 cm. (21 ½ in.) Width: 41 cm. (16 ¼ in.) Depth: 27.5 cm. (10 ¾ in.)
PROVENANCE
Maurice Segoura, Paris
Sotheby’s Paris, 5 July 2001, lot 54
Galerie Didier Aaron, Paris, Biennale 2004, Catalogue VIII, no. 40
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection. Volume II, New York, 1966, p. 426, no. 237.
P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 330, no. 42.
A. González-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale: gli arredi francesi, Milan, 1996,
pp. 255-256, no. 60.
These wall lights are the earliest version of a model which proved exceptionally popular
with the French royal family and their circle in the late 18th Century.
An identical pair (now lacking their garlands) formed part of the Parisian purchases
made by Louis XV’s daughter, Madame Infante’s husband or son, the Duke of Parma to
furnish the palace in Parma in the 1770s. This pair remained in the ducal collections in
Parma and were described in 1811 as… “Deux bras en bronze dore à trois branches chacun
au milieu desquels un vase de fleur, deux cascades de laurier [52 cm. high]”. Following the
unification of Italy, the wall-lights were transferred to the Quirinale Palace in Rome
where they remain today (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, op. cit., p. 255).
The later evolution of the model marks a curious exercise in the history of taste. Thierry
de Ville d’Avray, the head of the Royal Household to Louis XVI (contrôleur général des Meubles de la Couronne) ordered a number of pairs circa 1787 for
his sumptuous apartments in the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris with the addition of ram’s heads and grape vines in place of the laurel leaf garlands. They
were described as:
“Two rich pairs of three-branch wall brackets. On the front of the base is a ram’s head bearing a garland of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, the
branches adorned with split leaves and surmounted by a bouquet…” (Verlet, op. cit., no. 42).
The model was further adapted in 1788 for a set of four for use in the King’s bedchamber at the Chateau de Saint-Cloud, substituting a regal lion’s head
in place of the ram’s mask. This resulted in the iconographic anomaly of a lion devouring grape leaves! Ville d’Avray turned to the modeller Hauré, bronze
caster Forestier and bronzier Thomire for the execution of these latter versions which are now in the Wrightsman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York (inv. 1979.172.3-6; Watson, op. cit., no. 237).
A PAIR OF RESTAURATION GILT BRONZE AND CUT
CRYSTAL CANDLESTICKS REPRESENTING DIANA AND
APOLLO – CIRCA 1815-1825
Height: 32 cm. (12 ½ in.) Width and depth of base: 10 cm. (4 in.)
PROVENANCE
Jeremy Ltd., London
67
LIGHT APPLIQUES – CIRCA 1775-1780
Height: 54.5 cm. (21 ½ in.) Width: 41 cm. (16 ¼ in.) Depth: 27.5 cm. (10 ¾ in.)
PROVENANCE
Maurice Segoura, Paris
Sotheby’s Paris, 5 July 2001, lot 54
Galerie Didier Aaron, Paris, Biennale 2004, Catalogue VIII, no. 40
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection. Volume II, New York, 1966, p. 426, no. 237.
P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 330, no. 42.
A. González-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale: gli arredi francesi, Milan, 1996,
pp. 255-256, no. 60.
These wall lights are the earliest version of a model which proved exceptionally popular
with the French royal family and their circle in the late 18th Century.
An identical pair (now lacking their garlands) formed part of the Parisian purchases
made by Louis XV’s daughter, Madame Infante’s husband or son, the Duke of Parma to
furnish the palace in Parma in the 1770s. This pair remained in the ducal collections in
Parma and were described in 1811 as… “Deux bras en bronze dore à trois branches chacun
au milieu desquels un vase de fleur, deux cascades de laurier [52 cm. high]”. Following the
unification of Italy, the wall-lights were transferred to the Quirinale Palace in Rome
where they remain today (illustrated in A. González-Palacios, op. cit., p. 255).
The later evolution of the model marks a curious exercise in the history of taste. Thierry
de Ville d’Avray, the head of the Royal Household to Louis XVI (contrôleur général des Meubles de la Couronne) ordered a number of pairs circa 1787 for
his sumptuous apartments in the Hôtel de la Marine in Paris with the addition of ram’s heads and grape vines in place of the laurel leaf garlands. They
were described as:
“Two rich pairs of three-branch wall brackets. On the front of the base is a ram’s head bearing a garland of vine leaves and bunches of grapes, the
branches adorned with split leaves and surmounted by a bouquet…” (Verlet, op. cit., no. 42).
The model was further adapted in 1788 for a set of four for use in the King’s bedchamber at the Chateau de Saint-Cloud, substituting a regal lion’s head
in place of the ram’s mask. This resulted in the iconographic anomaly of a lion devouring grape leaves! Ville d’Avray turned to the modeller Hauré, bronze
caster Forestier and bronzier Thomire for the execution of these latter versions which are now in the Wrightsman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York (inv. 1979.172.3-6; Watson, op. cit., no. 237).
A PAIR OF RESTAURATION GILT BRONZE AND CUT
CRYSTAL CANDLESTICKS REPRESENTING DIANA AND
APOLLO – CIRCA 1815-1825
Height: 32 cm. (12 ½ in.) Width and depth of base: 10 cm. (4 in.)
PROVENANCE
Jeremy Ltd., London
67
