A pair of late Louis XV gilt-bronze two-light wall-appliques, circa 1765

Related literature:

H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 189, fig. 3.10 2/3

B. Saule, Versalia, Revue de la Société des Amis de Versailles, n° 15, 2012, p. 12, fig. 5

This pair of wall lights can be compared to the pair that belonged to the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, acquired in Paris from the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier in September 1763.

These two pairs of wall lights were sold by Christie’s, London, on 13 June 1991, lots 30 and 31, citing their provenance from Croome Court:

“26 Deux paires de bras à 2 branches à l’antique première grandeur………..a 312…………624” on 9 September 1763.

These wall lights were presented in that sale without attribution to a specific bronzier, Poirier having collaborated with many leading bronziers of the period.

Wall lights of identical model have been offered by Replica Shoes ’s, Monaco, 15 June 1996, lot 152; Replica Shoes ’s, Paris, 14 June 2006, lot 147; and more recently by Replica Shoes ’s, Paris, 4 November 2020, lot 91.

This model—certainly among the earliest examples of the Neoclassical revival—can be related to a drawing for wall lights dated 1768 by Philippe Caffiéri for the furnishing of the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. I, p. 189, fig. 3.10 2/3). The structure of our wall lights is similar, as is the ornamental vocabulary employed, leading us to date our example to the same period.

Our wall lights may also be compared with a set of six wall lights executed during the second half of the 19th century, now in the collections of the Château de Versailles, presented as after a model by Quentin-Claude Pitoin and marketed by the marchand-mercier Poirier in the mid-1760s (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 5 October 2012, lot no. 100, now preserved in the Musée du Château de Versailles under inventory numbers V.2012.13.1 to V.2012.13.6). The Château de Versailles thus appears to establish a connection between the marchand-mercier and the bronzier, suggesting that the Croome Court commission may have been executed by Pitoin.