Pair of Candlesticks, early 19th Century

A pair of Restauration period gilt bronze torches column. Chased and gilt bronze.
France.
ca. 1814-1822.
h. 11 in.

A pair of chased and gilt bronze column candlesticks, richly decorated with palmettes, leafs-and-darts and acanthus leaves. The baluster-shaped shaft is decorated with spirals and pearls, an ornament more rare than the traditional fluted shafts of Thomire or Choiselat’s candlesticks.

Candlesticks of this kind were so during the reign of Louis XVIII, it is difficult to establish an attribution with certainty. About a similar pair of candlesticks, Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, keeper at the Mobilier National from 1974 to 2018, noted that :

This candlestick could be one of the many acquired in March 1822 for the Château de Saint-Cloud from Choiselat-Gallien or Thomire, unless it was by Denière.

It was Louis-Isidore Choiselat, bronzier and supplier to Louis XVIII, who used the term "column candlesticks" to refer to this type of candlestick crowned with antique-style Corinthian capitals, but our pair is the closest to a model by Thomire, made for the Château de Saint-Cloud and delivered to the Garde-Meuble in 1822.

Sources

Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, De Bronze et de cristal. Objets d'ameublement XVIIIe-XIXe siècles du Mobilier national, Dijon, 2020.