A pair of Empire gilt-bronze and marble six-light candelabra by Guillaume P. Picard, circa 1820

These impressive candelabra, standing at over a metre tall, combine both materials and decorative motifs of the Empire style in a distinctly individual manner. They also appear to be the only currently recorded piece with a signature by the maker Guillaume Picard, about whom little is known and could possibly be an earlier relation of the more well-known bronzier Henri Picard (fl.1831-1864).

These models are relatively rare for Empire candelabra in depicting infant putti figures as the bearers of the candle nozzles. Though playful cherubs appear more frequently in Louis XVI figural candelabra, decoration under Napoleon tended to favour grown female figures personifying Victory, sometimes in a solidly Egyptian style: strength and might were generally preferred to the amorous associations of putti. Another pair of candelabra that were sold at Sotheby’s Paris, 19^th December 2017, lot 7 are very similarly designed to the present lot throughout, but replace the putti figures with swans, a much more common Empire motif.¹ However, the Empire period’s focus on Antiquity did see some candelabra incorporate mythological figures of children: for instance, in the Mobilier National there are candelabra with two winged cherubs holding aloft a torch in each hand (GML-5879-001 and GML-5879-002): the puffed cheeks, small butterfly wings and chasing on the gilt-bronze nozzles suggest that these embody zephyrs.² Ottomeyer and Pröschel reproduce a 1820 lithograph design for two candelabra with two child figures³ and two examples of Empire candelabra with putti as bearers of candle branches are pictured as figures 2 and 3 in Les Styles Empire & Restauration.⁴

The use of marble for the central shaft of this candlestick is also somewhat unusual: the typical Empire candlestick employed bronze for the figure or stem and gilt bronze for branches and details (or just solid gilt bronze throughout); marble was usually reserved for the bases. However, there are examples of marble being incorporated into the shafts of candelabra of this form, such as the pair that sold in these Rooms, 24^th February 2015, lot 122, and there are even others that use hardstones, such as a Thomire example that employs malachite in the Royal Collection (RCIN 2731).

¹ See the chapter focused solely on ‘The Swan’ in Odile Nouvel-Kammerer, Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style 1800-1815, New York, 2007, pp.228-245.

² As argued by Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, L’Heure, le feu, la lumière : Les bronzes du Mobilier national, Dijon, 2010, p.124.

3 Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen: Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol I, Munich, 1986, p.390.

⁴ Roger Baschet, Sylvie Chadenet et al, Les Styles Empire & Restauration, Paris, p.162