Pair of candlesticks; France, c. 1800

Pair of candelabra; France, c. 1800.
Gilded and patinated bronze; marble base.
Measurements: 92 x 35 x 23 cm.

Pair of five-light candelabra supported by two patinated bronze putti, each raising one arm to hold the set of gilded arms while resting the other hand on a spear. The children, with plump bodies and curly hair, are loosely draped in a cloth tied at the waist and stand on a small rocky outcrop, where the heads of two game animals—a wild boar and a deer—peek out, lending the ensemble a hunting theme. From the spear—with a smooth shaft and a gilded tip—five arms extend, curving outward.

Gilded bronze candelabra featuring child figures first appeared in Paris during the reign of Louis XVI, when the Neoclassical taste, with its return to Antiquity and its rejection of Rococo excess, made “d’ameublement” bronzes one of the great luxuries of interior decoration. Founders, chasers, and gilders such as Pierre Gouthière and Pierre-Philippe Thomire worked from models by sculptors like Clodion and Falconet, and competed in the quality of their chasing and the hallmarks of the brilliant gilding and the dark patina of the figures. These sets were commissioned for fireplaces, consoles, and salons of the aristocracy and the “marchands-merciers,” who often combined them with white or colored marble. Demand for these designs did not wane with the Revolution. During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, Parisian firms such as Barbedienne, Denière, and Susse Frères produced high-quality reissues of 18th-century models, so that today it is common to find 19th-century versions of the finest workmanship.

The hunting theme—featuring a spear and animal trophies at the base—connects to the world of Diana and the nobility’s passion for hunting, and is presented here with the graceful lightness of cherubs, very much in the taste of the 18th century. A similar model is housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. nos. 1983.72.8, .9), which provides a useful reference for contextualizing the design.