Pair Of Winged Victory Candelabras , Empire Era , 1805 / 1810

A pair of large, finely chased bronze candelabras with a double antique brown patina and mercury gilding, resting on cylindrical bases adorned with neoclassical sconces decorated with lyre, palmettes, laurel wreaths and musical attributes.

Each candelabra features an elegant winged female figure in the antique style - likened to a Victory, a Renommée or a Psyche - dressed in a long flowing drapery treated in the neo-Greek taste.
The figure, standing on a sphere, raises her arms to support a bouquet of moving five-light arms.

The sinuous arms, richly decorated with foliate scrolls and plant scrolls, radiate out from a central shaft terminated by an upper wick.
The ensemble presents a refined contrast between:

• the black-brown patinated bronze of the figures,
• and the matte, glossy gilding of the ornaments.

The particularly elegant cylindrical base is adorned with a large musical trophy centered by a lyre framed by foliage and ribbons, an emblematic motif of the Empire decorative vocabulary inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity.

These candelabras take up several major characteristics of the Empire style:

• Antique-style winged figures,
• monumental symmetrical composition,
• joined use of gilded bronze and patinated bronze,
• archeological and imperial references,
• very high quality of chasing.

The silhouette of the winged Victories and the treatment of the draperies strongly evoke the models distributed by the Maison Thomire under the Consulate and the First Empire.

"Attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire , Paris, Empire period,

• The winged figures carrying the lights are very close to Thomire's known models intended for imperial palaces.
• The quality of the patinated bronze and plant scrolls recalls the productions of the Thomire-Duterme house.
• The winged Victory models are documented in the Mobilier National and Élysée collections.

• The musical decorative vocabulary and the architectural proportions of the base are reminiscent of certain models
• The combination of gilded bronze and patinated bronze is also characteristic of his production.

• fine faces,
• highly worked wing ribs,
• deep carving on the arms of light,
• original mercury gilding probably largely preserved,
• homogeneous antique brown patina.

Pair of winged Victory candelabra
Paris, Empire period, circa 1805-1810
Finely chased bronze, gilded with mercury and patinated

Each five-light candelabra is supported by a winged female figure draped in the antique style, standing on a sphere, resting on a cylindrical base adorned with a musical trophy with a lyre.

The contrast between the antique brown patina and the matte and shiny gilding perfectly illustrates the refinement of furniture bronze under the First Empire.

Attributed to the entourage of Pierre-Philippe Thomire...