A large pair of Louis XVI candelabra attributed to François Rémond

A large and extremely fine pair of Louis XVI gilt and patinated bronze and red marble four-light candelabra attributed to François Rémond, each formed as a beautiful classical female caryatid wearing diaphanous robes, each with her opposite hand raised above her head to support a vase hung with foliate swags from which issues a central upright fluted shaft surmounted by a pinecone finial surrounded by four foliate scrolled candle branches terminating in foliate vase-shaped drip-pans beneath foliate and fluted nozzles, each figure standing upon a circular red marble plinth hung with abundant swags set on a square base

Paris, date circa 1790
Height 106.5 cm. each.

Literature: Ernest Dumonthier, “Les Bronzes du Mobilier National, Pendules et Cartels”, 1910, pl. XXIII, fig. 3, illustrating a similar model in the mobilier national.
Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 686, pl. 13, illustrating a clock with the same female caryatid figures with case by Pierre-Victor Ledure of c. 1820.
J-P. Samoyault, “Pendules et bronzes d’Ameubleument Entrés sous le 1er Empire, Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau, Catalogue des Collections de Mobilier”, 1989, p.155, no.132, illustrating a pair of candelabra from the Consulat period in the Musée de Château de Fontainebleau, with identical figures supporting similar candle branches but with square plinths mounted by wreaths.
Charles Baulez, “Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky” in “L’Estampille L’Objet d’Art”, May 1991, p. 85 and 89, illustrating a pair of candelabra sold by François Rémond in 1785 to Dominique Daguerre for princess Kinsky, which have identical caryatids who support woven baskets on their heads issuing differing candle branches and have differing swags around their circular plinths.
Peter Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, “L’Heure, Le Feu, La Lumière: Les Bronzes du Mobilier National 1800-1870”, 2010, p. 40, illustrating a very similar pair of candelabra portraying the same figures and almost identical candle branches but with square plinths mounted by wreaths in the Ministère de la Défense.
The model for these superb candelabra was created by eminent fondeur-ciseleur François Rémond (1747-1812) in about 1785. On 16th August that year he supplied similar candelabra with the same beautiful female figures to the duc de Penthièvre at a cost of 3,400 livres. In turn Rémond sold many more examples via the marchand -mercier Dominique Daguerre, of which one pair were sold on 24th December 1785 for 2,200 livres to princesse Kinsky (see Baulez op.cit). Other very similar candelabra by or attributed to Rémond were made in about 1790 including a pair previously with Partridge Fine Art (Partridge Catalogue Recent Acquisitions, 1998, p. 134) and another previously owned by Senator Mario Crespi and his wife Fosca Crespi of Milan. These models, which proved extremely very popular, were known to have been reproduced in Rémond’s workshop during the late eighteenth century and also as after-casts during the early years of the next. Among them is the pair in the Ministère de la Défense (illustrated in Dupuy-Baylet op.cit.) which by 1817 were recorded at l’Hôtel de Brienne, home of Letizia Bonaparte, the Emperor’s mother who had owned the property since 1805. So popular were the female figures that they also featured on a clock case, including one with a movement by Manière à Paris (illustrated in Baulez op.cit. p. 90).

François Rémond was one of the leading Parisian bronziers of his day. The son of a voiturier or carriage-maker, he began an apprenticeship with the doreur Pierre-Antoine Vial in 1763. Eleven years later Rémond was received as a maître-fondeur and rapidly rose in prominence so that by 1786 he enjoyed the fourth highest turnover out of over 800 Parisian bronziers. Working as both a fondeur-ciseleur as well as a doreur he was able to exercise considerable artistic control over his output. Rémond worked extensively for the marchand-merciers Dominique Daguerre and subsequently Martin-Eloi Lignereux through whom he supplied the cream of society. In addition to the duc de Penthièvre and princesse Kinsky, they included Queen Marie-Antoinette, the comte d’Artois and the comte d’Adhémar.