Encouraged by Sir William Chambers (d.1796) the Birmingham industrialist Matthew Boulton manufactured 'antique' or 'Roman' figurative candlesticks in the French manner, combining marble, bronze and ormolu. These provided appropriate garnitures for the fashionable neo-classical mantelpieces of the 1770s and often accompanied mantel-clocks. These candelabra, appropriate as the bearers of light, portray the Sun God Apollo, after the famous antiquity in the Vatican Belvedere, and his sister, the Moon Goddess Diana. Each bears a golden triumphal palm-tree cornucopia stem with triple branches, supporting sunflower paterae drip-pans and 'krator'-vase nozzles. Appropriate for the chaste withdrawing-room garnitures Boulton has presented his Apollo lightly clad. The costume was presumably adapted from the Persian figure illustrated in Chambers' Treatise on Civil Architecture, facing p.36, no. 3 and which appeared as supports for Boulton's 'Persian' bluejohn candlevases, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.23-1934) (see: N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pls. 84,85 and 86).

Two pairs of these candelabra were included in his sale at Messrs. Christie's and Ansell's on 18 May 1778, lots 79 and 124. Lot 79 sold to Storer for #27.6 but lot 124 was unsold. It is possible that lot 124 is the pair that remained in stock in the inventory taken on the death of Sir John Fothergill in 1782 (Richard Bentley's shop, 1 Diana and Apollo with branches, gilt 19.8.0) (see: N. Goodison, op. cit., p.276)