Pair of Louis XVI style torcheros of the second half of the nineteenth century. Following a model by ETIENNE-MAURICE FALCONET (Paris, 1716-1791) and FRANCOIS REMOND (Paris, 1747-1812).

Pair of Louis XVI style torcheros from the second half of the 19th century. After a model by ETIENNE-MAURICE FALCONET (Paris, 1716-1791) and FRANCOIS REMOND (Paris, 1747-1812). Gilded bronze, marble and ebonised wood. Size: 121 x 35 x 35 cm (sculpture); 10 x 23 cm (base). This is an excellent pair of historicist torchbearers that closely follow the design of Etienne-Maurice Falconet carried out by François Remond around 1790. On a marble column decorated with gilded bronze garlands stand two classical female figures worked in the round, with grace and naturalism in their gestures and movements. Each pair of figures holds aloft a classical cup from which emerges a delicate bulb whose foliated branches are decorated with pine cones, rockeries and other vegetal elements. This vegetal structure supports the body of lights with six arms ending in classical lighters. Particularly noteworthy is the large central shaft, taller than the rest, with an organic design topped with fruit and leaves. The whole has been worked with precious attention to detail, with each figure, each leaf, each flower and each petal treated individually. The pair of candelabra presented here, dating from the 19th century, are close to a drawing by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin representing the plaster models exhibited at the Salon of 1761 by Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), director of the Sèvres sculpture workshop from 1759 to 1766 (information referenced in "Vergoldete Bronzen", vol. I, 1986), which were destined to be cast in silver by François Thomas Germain. Falconet himself describes them as 'Deux Grouppes de femmes en plâtre. Ce sont des Chandeliers pour être exécutés en argent. Ils ont deux pieds six pouces de haut chacun". Based on this design, the famous bronze artist François Rémond produced the definitive model around 1790, albeit with certain variations on the original, as Remond's had an eagle that honourably crowned the bodies of lights. Other examples similar to the Remond original, and therefore related to the one we are now bidding for, adorn the Salon des Jeux du Roi at Versailles and one of the salons of the Hôtel de la Chancellerie at Versailles.