A VERY RARE PAIR OF NEOCLASSICAL GILTWOOD AND EBONIZED CANDELABRA

June 11 2009, 10:52am

English. Last Quarter Of The Eighteenth Century. The present pair of candelabra, although almost certainly English, due to their lightness of modeling, gilding technique, and typically English vase-shaped brass candleholders, are based on a French prototype that was introduced in the late 18th century. It is likely that the pair, which are most unusually carved in fine detail from wood, were produced as special commissions, or as maquettes for the plaster sculpture industry that flourished in Britain from the mid-18th through the mid-19th century. The plaster sculpture movement never spread to the Continent, although a very influential set of French statuettes were first produced in plaster for a party at the home of Madame du Berry in 1771. These four figures of Abundance held cornucopias from which issued candlelight.