Object Description
A Fine Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt and Patinated Bronze Four-Light Wall-Appliques
By Emmanuel-Alfred (dit Alfred II) Beurdeley, Paris.
Each modelled with a bare-breaded classical robed figure flanked by two pairs of scrolling branches. The figure standing on a bracket against vine-wrapped thyrsus with foliate trails below.
Stamped to the reverse ‘BY’
France, Circa 1880.
A pair of wall-lights of this model are recorded in situ in an old photograph of the petit salon of the Beurdeley residence at rue de Clichy in Paris. A pair are also recorded in the first Beurdeley sale in 6-9 May 1895, lot 162 described as ‘Paire d’appliques de style Louis XVI, en bronze doré il quatre bras porte-lumières avec rinceaux lt têtes d’aigle soutenus par des statuettes de femme en bronze p.itiné adossées contre un thyrse et placées sur des culs-de-lampe que terminent des grappes de raisin’.
These beautifully detailed wall-appliques are designed in the Louis XVI goût Grec style and are a variation, with four-branches as opposed to two, of a pair formerly in the Demidoff collection at San Donato, sold at auction in 1880 and now at the Detroit Institute of Arts (as illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 291, fig. 4.16.12). The figures of caryatids draped in the antique style are inspired by the one adorning a pair of candelabras attributed to the bronzer François Rémond (1747-1812).