Pair of Louis XVI style candlesticks; France, c. 1880

Pair of Louis XVI style candlesticks; France, c. 1880.
Mercury gilded bronze; marble.
Manuacture Millet (Paris)
Provenance: Important stately home in Catalonia.
Measurements: 87 x 56 x 40 cm.

Pair of six lights candelabra Louis XVI style made of mercury gilded bronze and marble. Each piece rests on a prismatic marble base, of sober lines, from which rise four stylized legs in the shape of a ram's foot. These elegantly curved legs join at a central stem that helps to support the main body of the candelabra.

The marble tank presents an important contrast: the lower part, carved as a hemisphere, is surrounded by a delicate application of openwork bronze decorated with Vitruvius' wave motif, while the upper part adopts a concave surface with an elegant set of gadroons arranged on a slant.

From the crown emerge five bronze arms profusely decorated with acanthus leaves and plant motifs, which open gracefully around a central burner slightly raised above the rest.