A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU SINGLE-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS

ATTRIBUTED TO ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE AND BOULLE FILS, CIRCA 1715

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU SINGLE-BRANCH WALL-LIGHTS
ATTRIBUTED TO ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE AND BOULLE FILS, CIRCA 1715
Each with cartouche-shaped pounced backplate with scrolling foliate angles, centred by a satyr mask with foliate headdress, issuing a foliate-wrapped scrolling candle-branch supporting a drip-pan with foliate waist and beaded edge and a gadrooned nozzle, drilled for electricity
10 ¼ in. (26 cm.) high; 6 ¼ in. (16 cm.) wide; 11 1/3 in. (29 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

These wall-lights can be attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), the most celebrated craftsman of the Louis XIV and Régence periods in France. Each centred by a satyr mask within a cartouche-shaped backplate, issuing a scrolling candle-branch, they are a superb example of Boulle’s work during the late Louis XIV period.

Several designs for wall-lights by Boulle are preserved in the book of Nouveaux desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, chez Mariette, presumed to have been published around 1715. Contrary to the title, not all the designs were in fact new at the time of publication. A number of the designs featured reproduced furniture and objects that had already been executed and others appear to propose variations on recognized models, see R. Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900, Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2013, pp. 87-91. By 1715 Boulle ceded his entire enterprise to his four sons and it is possible that the engravings he produced were ‘intended as a kind of catalogue of what could be ordered from the workshop’ (ibid, p. 87).

Boulle’s arm and backplate designs were intended to be assembled in different combinations. The scrolling foliate-wrapped candle-branches of these wall-lights relate to the design on plate 8 ‘branche d’un bras de cheminée’. A virtually identical pair of wall-lights was sold from the Dillée Collection Sotheby’s, Paris, 18 March 2015, lot 5 and appeared again on the market Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, Volume III; Sotheby’s, Paris, 22 october 2022, lot 689.