Pair Of Louis XVI style Candlesticks With Rams After Model By Etienne Martincourt

Refined pair of candlesticks with tripod shaft in the shape of rams after a model by Etienne Martincourt. The tripod, shaped like a braced Athenian, is centered with a foliated column. They are made in finely chiseled bronze, gilded with mat and burnished gold. The three legs of the tripod have the shape of rams: ram’s heads on the top and ram’s feet on the bottom. The openwork bases have decorations of  leafs decoration, vines and rows of pearls. This work from  early 19th century, has been created after a model by Etienne Martincourt.

This pair has very beautiful carving and gilding and is in an excellent condition.


ETIENNE MARTINCOURT (ACTIVE 1763-1791)
Etienne Martincourt (born circa 1735, died after 1791) worked on the Right Bank of Paris, north of the Louvre, in a quarter that had been home to many bronze workers since the Middle Ages. After becoming a master in 1762, he was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc, a guild of decorative painters and sculptors. Membership in the guild of bronze casters and the Académie allowed Martincourt to design as well as to produce objects in gilt bronze. Examples by Etienne Martincourt (active 1763-1791) can be seen in the Wallace Collection, the Huntington Collection, the British Museum and the Getty Museum. The “athénienne” shape of this model is really connected with the production of Etienne Martincourt. His most famous model shares this shape and is kept at the Wallace Collection in London.


DIMENSIONS
Height: 28 cm. Diameter of the base: 13 cm.


LITERATURE
Sotheby’s Paris, 19 November 2020, where a pair of this model appeared in auction.