Pair of girandoles, two flames France (Paris), 18th c. Bronze, gilded. Spiral shaft over a curved foot with floral tendril. Curved tendril arms around central leaf shaft. Rest, min. dam. Holes for electrification. The tendril arms removable. H. 44 cm. Imaginative, playful, spontaneous, almost wild - these adjectives could be used to describe the design of this pair of candlesticks, which can also be used as two-flame girandoles by means of an attachment. The conventional division of the candlestick into base, vertical shaft and eaves bowl merges here into an organic unit of palm leaves in S-curves. Starting from an asymmetrical base, they spiral up to the irregularly shaped spout. The contrast between the polished and matt surfaces of the gilded bronzes heightens the impression of dynamism and liveliness. Their virtuoso formal language derives from the so-called "Style Rocaille", which was founded by the French goldsmith and ornament engraver Juste Aurèle Meissonnier (1695-1750). In 1734 his "Livres d'ornements en trente pièces" appeared, in which he presented patterns for craftsmen in a completely new style inspired by natural forms. Characteristics are asymmetry, irregular outline, movement, even detachment from the object. Contemporary critics found this "Style Rocaille" arbitrary and not following any order. Thus, in 1754, the draughtsman Nicolas Cochin sneered in the "Mercure de France" in a "request to goldsmiths, chasers and wood sculptors": "We would be infinitely obliged to you if you would be so kind as not to change the sense and purpose of things, and to remember, for example, that a candlestick should be straight and vertically shaped to support a candle, and not sinuous, as if someone had bent it, that a drip tray on the candlestick should be concave to catch the wax that runs down, and not convex to let it drip onto the tablecloth under the candlestick." (Cited in Ottomeyer, Hans / Pröschel, Peter: Gilded Bronzes. The Bronze Works of the Late Baroque and Classical Period. Vol. 1. Munich 1986, p. 99.) Accordingly, Paris in the middle of the century soon resumed the classical formal language oriented to antiquity, whereby the "style rocaille" continued to exist for a while alongside early classicism. On the other hand, it was enthusiastically received in Germany, and here especially in the south: this was primarily thanks to François Cuvilliés, who had become acquainted with the rocaille as an ornamental form in Paris in 1720/25 and soon thereafter introduced it at the court of the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel. His "Rich Rooms" of the Munich Residence or, for example, the Amalienburg in the palace gardens of Nymphenburg are iconic works of German Rococo and to this day overwhelming testimonies to this enthusiasm for the rocaille. Provenance: Christie's London auction The European Conoisseur. 500 Years Decorative Arts Europe, 06.07.1992, lot 37 (with attribution to Caffieri) - North German private collection.