ATTRIBUTED TO FRANCOIS REMOND, CIRCA 1780-85, PROBABLY SUPPLIED BY DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE

With their cockerel-headed scrolled branches, distinctive foliate-wrapped twisted stem and ovoïd alabaster bodies flanked by masks, these superb candelabra are attributed to the celebrated ciseleur-doreur François Rémond (1747-1812) and were most probably supplied by the foremost marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre.
As mentioned by Dr HelenJacobsen: “(…) Rémond supplied candelabra and girandoles to Daguerre that appeared to be different for each client, but when they are examined more closely it is clear that a standard group of motifs was often used in differing combinations to achieve an overall effect of uniqueness which would satisfy a demanding buyer. Accounts from the comte d’Artois in 1788 noted Daguerre as a marchand de girandoles (candelabra retailer), so evidently these were a major and successful element of his business” (H. Jacobsen, Gilded Interiors: Parisian Luxury & the Antique, London, 2017, pp.5-6).

Celebrated comparable examples, with patinated bronze or blued steel bodies, are recorded :
- A pair formerly in the collection of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838), Napoléon's foreign minister, at the château de Valençay, France.
- A pair, with identical branches, formely in the colleciton of Monsieur Ernest de Lafaulotte (1819-1872), a French politician and Vice-President of the Conseil Municipal of the city of Paris, sold Christie's London, 6 December 2012, lot 171.
- A pair executed circa 1780 in the James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor (ill. G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. II, 1974, pp.695-6, fig.169).
- A pair executed circa 1785 in the château de Fontainebleau (ill. J.P.Samoyault, Pendules et bronzes d'ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire, Paris, 1989, fig. 129). The Fontainebleau pair was acquired from the marchand Legendre in 1804 to furnish the apartments of Pope Pius VII at the château, during his French visit for Napoleon's coronation as Emperor. The pair is recorded in the salon de l'Empereur in the 1804 inventory of the château, where it is described as '2 candélabres en cuivre ciselé doré portant quatre bobèches soutenues par un vase'.
- Two pairs executed between 1780 and 1785 and attributed to Rémond, in the Wallace Collection (ill. in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, vol. III, London, 1996, pp. 1236-40 (F132-3), and 1250-1254 (F134-5)). The first pair features the same distinctive scrolled branches as on the present candelabra, issuing from a central foliate-wrapped twisted stem, above a similar vase-shaped body headed with a frieze (F132-3); the cockerel heads which adorn the present pair are however replaced with eagles heads on the Wallace example. The second Wallace pair features scrolled branches with female Egyptian heads, and was acquired by the expert Mannheim for the 4th Marquess of Hertford at the collection sale of Prince Anatole Demidoff, Palazzo San Donato, 22-24 March 1870, the pair is described in the catalogue entry as 'Deux charmants candélabres du temps de Louis XVI accompagnant la pendule qui précède, en bronze bleui et doré au mat, par GOUTHIèRE (...). Pièces très élégantes et du fini le plus précieux'.

The present pair, incorporating precious alabaster bodies and retaining their original ormolu chains, is a remarkable example to add to this corpus.

FRANCOIS REMOND

One of the foremost ciseleurs-doreurs of the Louis XVI period, François Rémond worked for many of the most sophisticated collectors of the day, such as the Comte d'Artois to whom he supplied ormolu for the Cabinet Turc at Versailles, the duc de Penthièvre, the Princesse de Lamballe and the Princesse Kinsky. Rémond supplied a considerable amount of bronzes d'ameublement to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, most of which in the style which has come to define the last flowering of the Louis XVI period, the goût Etrusque or arabesque. He collaborated extensively with the celebrated marchand mercier Daguerre, to whom he is recorded to have supplied work valued at the staggering sum of 920,000 livres between 1778 and 1792.