Pair of Louis XV style candlesticks; France, Napoleon III period ¾ of the nineteenth century.

Pair of Louis XV style candlesticks; France, Napoleon III period ¾ of the nineteenth century.
Gilded bronze.
They present losses in the gilding.
Measurements: 58,5 x 28 x 20 cm (x2).
Pair of seven-light candelabra executed in finely chiseled and gilded bronze, conceived according to the formal repertoire of the style developed during the reign of Louis XV. Each piece is articulated from a slender shaft with an undulating profile that starts from a circular molded base profusely decorated with vegetal motifs in relief. The shaft ascends with a serpentine movement and culminates in a central core from which six curved arms radiate, to which the upper light is added, forming a set of seven points of illumination.
The arms, of marked dynamism, unfold in wide curves and counter-curves, integrating organically with an exuberant decoration of acanthus leaves, scrolls, intertwined stems and rockery elements. The candleholders take the form of small goblets seated on foliaceous washers, reinforcing the stylistic unity of the whole.
Although they formally evoke 18th century models, these pieces should be placed in the historicist context of the Second French Empire. Under Napoleon III, the revival of national styles of the past, including Louis XV, took on a central role in defining official and bourgeois taste. The nineteenth-century reinterpretation of Rococo was not a mere archaeological copy, but a recreation adapted to new technical and decorative requirements. Advances in casting and finishing procedures allowed for precise execution and a rich surface texture, visible in the meticulousness of the chiseling.