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Lot Essay
These candelabra are after the celebrated model supplied by the fondeur-ciseleur-doreur François Rémond to the comte d'Artois for his cabinet Turc at the Palais du Temple. Although the present whereabouts of the Artois candelabra remains unrecorded, this model enjoyed considerable popularity and further pairs, both from Rémond's workshop in the late 18th Century and after-casts executed in the 19th Century are recorded. These include a pair attributed to Rémond originally in the salon de compagnie of the hôtel Kinsky, and another pair in the Louvre ('Le Faubourg Saint-Germain, La Rue Saint-Dominique', Exhibition Catalogue, Musée Rodin, Paris, 1984, pp. 125-132, fig. 166 and D. Alcouffe, 'Les Objets Artois au Louvre' in 'La Folie d'Artois', Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 1989, p. 161). Rémond adapted the Artois modle for the subsequent versions replacing the circlet of crescents surrounding the branches by a wreath of roses and the fasces central branch by a quiver of arrows. On both the Artois and Kinsky pairs the central vase was enamelled blue (C. Baulez, Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Estampille L'Objets d'Art, May 1991, pp. 92-92).
The fashion for all things à la Turque was inspired by a play entitled Mustapha et Zéangir, which opened in Paris in the mid-1770's and depicted tales of Suleiman the Magnificent. The oriental voluptuousness of the life it portrayed transfixed the comte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother and he turned to his architect Etienne-Louis Boullé, Intendant des Bâtiments, to fulfill his architectural fantasies. The Cabinet Turc at the Palais du Temple was a room with two casement windows and cut-off corners, dressed like a tent (festonné à la Romaine) held together by twenty-three iron crescents, the walls disguised behind a mass of rich fabrics, with two grands divans flanking the chimney with mirrors hung on the ceiling directly above. The comte d'Artois' first Cabinet Turc sparked a craze, and was followed by a further boudoir Turc in his appartements at Versailles in 1781 and, not to be outdone, a cabinet turc decorated by Rousseau de la Rottière for Marie-Antoinette at Fontainebleau in 1787.
François Rémond (1747-1812) was one of the pre-eminent bronziers of his time, rapidly rising to prominence after his maîtrise to the point that in 1786 he had the fourth highest capitalization out of over 800 bronziers in Paris. He worked as a fondeur and ciseleur, as well as a doreur and thus was able to exercise considerable artistic control over his output. In particular, he worked extensively for Dominique Daguerre, for whom he supplied work valued at the staggering sum of 920,000 livres between 1778 and 1792. Latterly he also worked for Martin-Eloi Lignereux, one of the most important marchands-merciers of the early 19th Century (C. Baulez, 'Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, p. 86 and 92). Daguerre included a pair of candelabra of this model in one of the series of sales he organised at Christie's, 25-26 March 1791, second day's sale, lot 51. These could perhaps be the pair now in the Royal Collection, although the relatively detailed catalogue description makes no mention of the fact that on the Windsor CAstle pair the figures are patinated-bronze not gilt-bronze.
The fashion for all things à la Turque was inspired by a play entitled Mustapha et Zéangir, which opened in Paris in the mid-1770's and depicted tales of Suleiman the Magnificent. The oriental voluptuousness of the life it portrayed transfixed the comte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother and he turned to his architect Etienne-Louis Boullé, Intendant des Bâtiments, to fulfill his architectural fantasies. The Cabinet Turc at the Palais du Temple was a room with two casement windows and cut-off corners, dressed like a tent (festonné à la Romaine) held together by twenty-three iron crescents, the walls disguised behind a mass of rich fabrics, with two grands divans flanking the chimney with mirrors hung on the ceiling directly above. The comte d'Artois' first Cabinet Turc sparked a craze, and was followed by a further boudoir Turc in his appartements at Versailles in 1781 and, not to be outdone, a cabinet turc decorated by Rousseau de la Rottière for Marie-Antoinette at Fontainebleau in 1787.
François Rémond (1747-1812) was one of the pre-eminent bronziers of his time, rapidly rising to prominence after his maîtrise to the point that in 1786 he had the fourth highest capitalization out of over 800 bronziers in Paris. He worked as a fondeur and ciseleur, as well as a doreur and thus was able to exercise considerable artistic control over his output. In particular, he worked extensively for Dominique Daguerre, for whom he supplied work valued at the staggering sum of 920,000 livres between 1778 and 1792. Latterly he also worked for Martin-Eloi Lignereux, one of the most important marchands-merciers of the early 19th Century (C. Baulez, 'Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, p. 86 and 92). Daguerre included a pair of candelabra of this model in one of the series of sales he organised at Christie's, 25-26 March 1791, second day's sale, lot 51. These could perhaps be the pair now in the Royal Collection, although the relatively detailed catalogue description makes no mention of the fact that on the Windsor CAstle pair the figures are patinated-bronze not gilt-bronze.