A pair of French polychrome-decorated cast-iron blackamoor torcheres

BY VAL D'OSNÉ, LATE 19TH CENTURY

细节

A pair of French polychrome-decorated cast-iron blackamoor torcheres
By Val d'Osné, Late 19th Century
Each wearing striped shorts and holding a torch in his raised arm, one holding a ball with other balls at his feet, the other with a snake coiled around his arm and holding a baton, each on a circular base, one stamped VAL D'OSNE, fitted for electricity
54¾ in. (139 cm.) high (2)

拍品专文

The Val d'Osné Foundry, established in 1835 by André, was subsequently renamed Houille et Cie. in 1867 when taken over by Barbezat. By 1870, however, it was known as the Société Anonyme des Hautes Fourneaux & Fonderies du Val d'Osne, exhibiting its wares in a Paris showroom at Boulevard Voltaire.

These two figures are based on engravings of Statues by Mathurin Moreau. As their catalogues reveal, Moreau's oeuvre was extensively reproduced during the second half of the 19th Century by the Val d'Osné foundry.

An identical pair, although taller, the property of Miss Isabel Goldsmith, were sold in these Rooms 12 December 1996, lot 146 and another pair of this size were sold in these Rooms, 31 October 1996, lot 235.