Pair Of Silver-plated Bronze Candlesticks, Hallmarked With A Crowned C – France, Louis XV Period.

An elegant pair of finely turned and silvered bronze candlesticks with canted baluster shafts resting on a broad octagonal base with projections. Their sober and architectural profile perfectly illustrates the transition from the Louis XIV style to the beginning of the Louis XV, characterized by geometric rigor and purity of lines, still faithful to the classical spirit of the previous reign. This model of candlestick, very common in French goldsmithing from 1725–1735, finds close comparisons with the silver works of Nicolas Bedane (Angers, circa 1729–1732), François-Louis Garnier (Laval, circa 1733) or Philippe Boutilly (Châlons, circa 1736), which adopt the same octagonal construction with steps and the same curvature of the shaft. Each candlestick bears the crowned C hallmark, a tax mark imposed by the edict of February 1745 and used until 1749 to sanction the payment of a tax on copper and bronze works, new or old, gilded or silvered. This hallmark attests that the pair was in circulation and subject to tax no later than 1749, confirming its authenticity and its fine antiquity. Height: 24.5 cm Reference: Pierre Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIᵉ siècle, Picard, 1987. Comparables: candlesticks by Nicolas Bedane (Angers, circa 1730), François-Louis Garnier (Laval, 1733), Philippe Boutilly (Châlons, 1736).