These guéridon-stands of golden thuya-wood have fluted nd marble-figured columns enriched with ormolu and supported on Pompeian tazze and Bacchic lion-paw monopodiae. Their form relates to Roman bronze candelabra such as were illustrated in Della Antichita de Ercolano, Vol.VIII, Naples, 1792 and with their disc-supported paws, they relate in particular to one found near Vesuvius and formerly in the collection of Sir William Hamilton before being acquired by the British Museum (H.Moses, A Collection of Vases, Altars, Paterae, Tripods, Candelabra, Sarcophagi etc., 1817, pl.84 and D. Bailey, Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum, London, 1996, pl.1092, no. Q 3867).

A related set of four bronze candelabra-stands at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire are attributed to the French bronzier Alexis Decaix (d.1819) of Piccadilly, who no doubt executed the related guéridon-stands, also incorporating octagon ribbon-guilloche segments, that belonged to the connoisseur Thomas Hope at his Duchess Street mansion/museum (Temple Newsam Studies, 'Country House Lighting', 1992, no.42)). Such 'Pompeian' monopodiae featured on a secretaire pattern illustrateed in Costumes Parisiens from the year XVIII (1799) (U.Leben, Molitor, London, 1992, p.134) and Hope is likely to have had his stands copied from a French pattern.

It is therefore pertinent that Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine's Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, Paris, 1801 featured torchères with related palmette-wrapped shafts, tazze-shaped capitals and lion-paw monopodiae, such as the 'Candélabre exécuté chez Mr. D. à Paris' (pl.XXIII) and the foliate-wrapped posts of the 'Trone de l'Empereur au Palais des Tuileries' (pl.XXXVII).

The pronounced lion-paw monopodiae also feature on an Empire guéridon sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 3 March 1990, lot 26.