Pair Of Candlesticks Made Of Mahogany And Gilded Wood

Pair of mahogany and gilded wood candlesticks

Mahogany, carved and gilded wood
Lombardy
First quarter of the 19th century
H. 170 cm (66.9 in.)

The ribbed lobes of the acanthus leaves, delicately layered to recreate in gilded wood the effect that the alternation of matte and burnished sections would have achieved in bronze, point to the origins of these torch holders in northern Italy — either in Piedmont, where a virtuoso school of intagliato had established itself in the 18th century, or in Lombardy. The acanthus leaf motif is, in fact, very similar to that of a sgabello preserved at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, executed after a model by Giocondo Albertolli by a Lombard workshop at the very end of the 18th century.

The base of one of the candlesticks conceals a secret compartment.

See Denise Ledoux-Lebard, Les Ébénistes du XIXe siècle. 1795–1889, Paris, 1984, and especially Adriana Boidi Sassone et al., Furniture. From Rococo to Art Deco, Cologne, 2000. For the furniture crafted by Jean-Baptiste Youf for Élisa Bonaparte, see Enrico Colle, Il mobile dell’Ottocento in Italia. Arredi e décorations d’interni dal 1815 al 1900, Milan, 2007.