Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Important and rare pair of wall lights in finely chiseled and mercury-gilded bronze. Model with two light arms with bases decorated with rocaille acanthus sprays ending with small flowers. The two intertwined arms are nervously treated as whip strokes; they support the two cups with plant decoration that support two bobeches in the shape of twisted buds.
The whole of the wall lights is studded with small flowers.
High quality of chiseling and mercury gilding.
Good condition, bobeches, screw threads and original gilding.
Parisian work from the Louis XV period, circa 1750, probably after a drawing by Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754).
Dimensions: Height: 48 cm; Width: 30 cm; Depth: 21 cm
Provenance: Important family of the French nobility (Marshal of France under Louis XV); by descent since the 18th century.
Our opinion: The design of our pair of sconces is characteristic of the works of the sculptor of the regent Nicolas Pineau. Like Juste Aurèle Meissonnier, Pineau will be one of the great representatives of the asymmetrical rocaille which corresponds to the apogee of the Louis XV style in the 1750s. The nervousness, the exuberance of the forms and the proliferation of the plant decoration are the founding principles of this movement. Our sconces with intersecting arms appear in the middle of the century of enlightenment with many variations in size and decoration; our pair whose tops are finished with florets is to our knowledge unique and probably corresponds to a special order. The great founder-chasers of the period almost all engaged in this exercise, but the way of making the flowers and the chasing are characteristic of the works of the founder-chaser to the king Jean-Joseph de St Germain (1719-1791)
