AFTER THE MODEL BY PHILIPPE CAFFIERI: A FINE PAIR OF EARLY 19TH CENTURY BRONZE FIGURAL CANDELABRA

each modelled as a patinted bronze putto, one kneeling and one seated on a rocky base, blowing a conch shell, both supporting acanthus leaves issuing three fluted branches with leaf and berry drip pans, and urn shaped candle nozzles cast with laurel leaves, raised on ormolu base square bases cast with foliage and guilloche, later drilled and fitted for electricity,

44cm high excluding fitment,

These sumptuous candelabra can be dated to between 1820 and 1830 based on their close similarity to a number of other known examples dating to this period. The design of the candelabra has been attributed to the important 18th century designer Caffieri, but the figures of the putti are dervied from a 17th century model attributed to Alessandro Algardi (Italian, 1595-1654); depicting putti holding aloft shells. A pair of these Algardi type figures were acquired by the 4th Marquess of Hertford by 1865 and are now in the Wallace Collection. The Wallace Collection state that the original design for these figures seem to have originated in Rome, in the circle of sculptors such as Alessandro Algardi (1595–1654) and François Duquesnoy (1597–1643), but that their casts were almost certainly made in the mid 18th century in France. Jennifer Montagu more firmly attributes the design to Algardi based on the similarity to the Putto on a hippocamp now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. The figures were probably first incorporated into candelabra in the Louis XVI period, and the rights to this model may originally have belonged to Poirier who delivered to Madame du Barry in 1770 'une paire de girandoles à trois branches en bronze doré d'or moulu ornes de figures de porcelaine de France 624 livres'. The design became popular amongst the English gentry in the early 19th century and there are a number of known examples still in country house collections.

Auction comparables:

Christie's, London, 22 January 2009, Lord St. Helens and Sir William FitzHerbert The Collections of a Diplomat and a Courtier, lot 541, sold £13,750.

Christie's, London, 9 December 2010, lot 111, sold £15,000.

Christie's, London, 7 July 2011 lot 509 sold £8750.

Related Literature:

A version where the putti are playing flutes is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et.al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. II, p. 156, fig 3.2.1, where an attribution to Philippe Caffiéri is suggested (fig. 3.2.2.).

See J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, London, 1985, vol. II, p. 394-396, and French Bronzes in the Wallace Collection, London, 2002, pp. 84-85 for examples of the Algardi type figures that appear to be the original model for the Caffieri design.