A la manière de Pierre-Philippe Thomire (Paris,... Lot n° 84

PAIR OF CANDELABRES ON STANDS EACH WITH EIGHTEEN LIGHTS Paris, 19th century PROVENANCE Wannegem-Lede Castle Collection J.B. Gilt bronze H. 253 cm, W. 56 cm, D. 56 cm This pair of gilded bronze torchères, of baluster form, is garnished with girandoles with eighteen lights on two rows, coming out of a large finial that rests on the baluster through a small gadrooned cup. The baluster, composed of four parts, has a ringed and fluted shaft, finished with a base with acanthus leaves, supported by a triangular pedestal with protrusions. The base, heightened by a plinth, is decorated on each side with volutes centered on a shell, between a frieze of ovals and a heart-shaped stripe, with lions' paws at the corners. Our candelabras were made for the castle Wannegem-Lede, in imitation of the four large candelabras delivered by Thomire in 1811 for the great cabinet of the Emperor at the Tuileries Palace. Percier had provided the model (fig. 1). Louis-Philippe had the girandoles removed from one pair, the one that supported the curtains of the throne and that is now in the Louvre Museum (fig. 2). The other pair disappeared, with its girandoles, in the fire of 1871. Our two large torchères, with their girandoles, revive the decorum of the sovereign courts in the 19th century, this taste for large decorations in the style of Antiquity.