MID-19TH CENTURY, OF LOUIS XVI STYLE

These finely cast candlesticks are based on the distinguished model by Etienne Martincourt (active 1763-1791), circa 1775-80, which remained popular throughout the 19th century. The early 19th-century variant was produced with nozzles of Empire or Restauration design, chased with palmette ornaments. A pair supplied circa 1845 to the duc d'Aumale for the Château de Chantilly belongs to this group (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIè Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 387). From the mid-19th Century, however, bronziers appear to have reverted back to the original model, only excluding the chain looped through the tripod stem, which is visible in a drawing of Martincourt's model (illustrated) and these candlesticks belong to this later group (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, vol. III, London, 1996, pp. 1240-1246). Amongst the original 18th-century casts stamped by Martincourt is a pair in the Wallace Collection, London, formerly in the collection of Léopold Double; a pair in the British Museum; two pairs in the Huntington Museum, California and a pair in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California, formerly in the collection of Mrs. Meyer Sassoon and subsequently that of her daughter Mrs. Derek Fitzgerald.