A very fine pair of Louis XVI style gilt bronze three-light candelabra, each with a fluted baluster stem, headed by a fluted vase issuing a pronounced berried finial surrounded by two tiers of leaves above a ring of stylised lily flowerheads, the vase also issuing three downward scrolled foliate-wrapped candle branches terminating in vase-shaped nozzles and circular beaded drip-pans, the stem with an acanthus-wrapped base supported on a circular stepped foot with a gadrooned border 

Paris, date circa 1820

Height 43 cm. each.

Literature: Giacomo and Rozenn Wannenes, “Les Bronzes Ornementaux et Les Objets Montes de Louis XIV à Napoléon III”, 2004, p. 238, illustrating a pair of similar Louis XVI three-light gilt bronze candelabra, which have similar decoration as here but have a lower and more restrained pine cone finial.

This elegant pair of candelabra feature many characteristics of the high Neo-classical taste that prevailed in France during the reign of Louis XVI in the late eighteenth century. Such elements include the vase-shaped nozzles and baluster stem, the ring of flower-heads, as well as the use of fluting, beading, gadrooning and the adornment of acanthus leaves. After the French Revolution, the tastes that dominated the ancient regime were replaced by a more severe interpretation of classical motifs during the Empire period. This was largely due to the influence of Napoleon’s chief architects and ornamentalistes Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853). Following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and subsequent exile, artists and designers began to look back to previous styles to create new objets d’art. It may well have been that the present candelabra were made for a pro-monarchist and thus overtly looked back to the Louis XVI style. Such candelabra were known as bouts de table since they were intended to be placed at either end of a grand dining table.