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A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU TWO-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS ATTRIBUTED TO JACQUES CAFFIERI, CIRCA 1745-49 The backplate moulded with scrolling rocaille motifs above a flowering branch, issuing two scrolling foliate branches terminating in drip-pans and nozzles, pierced for electricity, each struck with the C couronne poin?on 23 in. (58.5 cm.) high
The 'C' Couronné Poin?on was a tax mark in use between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
These beautifully sculpted wall lights, with their serpentine, confident lines and sumptuous organic form, exhibit all the hallmarks of the mature rococo style of the mid-18th century. Reflecting the Louis XV 'pittoresque' style popularised by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Nicolas Pineau in its purest form, they can confidently be attributed to the sculpteur, fondeur et ciseleur du roi Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), perhaps the greatest bronzier of the period.
THE ATTRIBUTION TO CAFFIERI
With their naturalistically-cast pierced scrolling branches, these wall lights display marked similarities to a group of wall appliques which formed part of the superb bronzes d'ameublement supplied to Madame-Louise-Elisabeth, Madame Infante, Louis XV's eldest daughter (illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Gilt Bronzes in the Louvre, Paris, 2004, pp. 54-5, cat. 19). Two pairs of twin-branch wall lights with the inventory numbers for the Palazzo di Colorno are in the Musée du Louvre, whilst a further closely related pair of three-branch appliques bearing Colorno inventory numbers was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 34 (FF 1,332,000 including premium). These appliques, along with an additional suite of four attributed to Caffiéri in the collection of the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, no.168, p.103), were almost certainly amongst the thirty-four wagons of goods given by her father and commissioned from Parisian craftsmen circa 1752-53 to furnish the Palazzo following her marriage to the Duke of Parma. Whilst Madame Infante is known to have purchased works directly from the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux, as well as from the ciseleur-doreur du Roy Antoine Lelivre, it appears Caffiéri was the bronzier most extensively patronised on this commission. These works have been convincingly attributed to Caffiéri, probably assisted by his elder son Philippe (1714-1774, ma?tre fondeur 1756) on the basis of two celebrated chandeliers which Madame Infante also brought to the Palazzo. Signed and dated 'CAFFIERI A PARIS/1751', with one of the pair bearing the consecutive inventory number to the Givenchy wall lights, the chandeliers are currently in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, vol. III, Lodon, 1996, fig. 265).