A PAIR OF LARGE OTTOMAN BRONZE CANDLESTICKS
Ottoman Turkey, late 16th - 17th century

Each of typical shape, resting on a wide everted circular foot, with curved and flared shoulders, rising to a tapering baluster stem terminating in a wide cylindrical candle holder with everted rim, each stem detachable from the base through a screwed-in mechanism, the exterior engraved with subtle parallel lines around the base, mid-body, stem and candle holder, otherwise plain, each 42cm high and 30.5cm widest diameter of the base.

Provenance: from the private collection of Castlehyde House, Cork, Ireland, sold at Sheppard's Irish Auction House, 26 November 2020, lot 21.

Beautifully situated on the banks of the Blackwater, Castlehyde House is a wonderfully restored estate mid-way between Cork and Dublin in Ireland. The house, which originally dates from the late 18th century, is widely renowned as one of the finest examples of structural restorations of a historic Irish home. Built in the Palladian style and following the design of the elder Abraham Hargrave, Castlehyde was completed for John Hyde in ca. 1801 and became the official seat of the Hyde family, of which Douglas Hyde, the founder of the Gaelic League and the first President of Ireland, was a member.

The Neo-classical interiors of the house have been filled with an eclectic array of treasures and artworks from all over the world, from China to the Americas. Therefore, it shouldn't surprise us that these early Ottoman candlesticks were placed next to a Buddhist South East Asian gilded Bhumisparsamudra Buddha.