Paire d'importants et grands candélabres de style Louis XVI d'époque Napoléon III en bronze ciselé et doré à dix lumières, milieu XIXe siècle

A pair of monumental Napoleon III ormolu ten-light candelabra in the Louis XVI style, mid-19th century

Each depicting draped dancing muses holding aloft the foliate and flowering branches terminating in rose and lily-shaped nozzles and drip-pans, on reeded columnar bases hung with berried swags, above beaded and foliate moulding, on a square plinth with canted angles, 45cm diam., 135cm high, (17 1/2in diam., 53in high)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Most probably, Marchese Orso Serra, Villa Serra in Comago, near Genoa.
Private Italian collection

The model of these candelabra is based on two plaster casts by Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), known from a drawing by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin executed in the margin of a booklet of the Salon of 1761. Similarly, the draped nymphs or muses can be as well associated to a model by Louis Simon Boizot (1743-1809) who was director of sculpture at Sèvres in 1774 (E. Bourgeois and G. Lechevallier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres, Recueil des modèles de la Manufacture de Sèvres au XVIIIe Siècle, Vol.I, p.23, no.311), see F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Furniture, London, 1956, p.89, F136-7.
This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: W
W Lot is located in the Bonhams Warehouse and will only be available for collection from this location.

good overall condition
built up of dirt and dust, would benefit from a good clean.
some minor marks, scratches and dents consistent with age and normal wear.
originally electrified.
two flowers detached and in need of re-fixing.
otherwise in good condition