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Lot Essay
This extraordinary pair of candelabra, or girandole à obélisque, with fantastic chimères candle branches was almost certainly executed by Louis-Auguste Hervieu (d. 1811), one of the preeminent bronziers of the Empire period. From the beginning of the Directoire to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, a period spanning less than twenty years (1795-1815), ormolu artistry reached its pinnacle in terms of form, casting, chasing and gilding. This superb pair of candelabra exemplifies this fine craftsmanship, and characterizes le gout Empire with ornamentation representing allegorical subjects derived from Greek and Roman mythology, and subsequently disseminated in Percier & Fontaine’s Recueil de décorations intérieures (1812).
LOUIS-AUGUSTE HERVIEU
In circa 1783, Louis-Auguste Hervieu inherited the prestigious and established workshop of his father, Louis-Barthélemy Hervieu, a ciseleur, with a glittering client base that included Philippe Caffieri, Jean-François Oeben, Edme-Jean Gallien, François-Thomas Germain and Louis- François Gobert, all fournisseurs to the Crown. The financial accounts of Hervieu père illustrate the extent of his business operations, in 1763, the craftsman was owed the significant sum of 7,721 livres by the ébéniste, Oeben, and in 1774, the sculptor, Caffieri had an outstanding debt of 6,313 livres. Furthermore, Hervieu père’s private clients included Gustave III of Sweden, le marquis de Ménars and the Lepaute brothers who were clockmakers. While the career of Louis-Auguste Hervieu was marginally less brilliant than that of his father, he also had important clients, Lepaute (uncle and nephew), the goldsmith, Joseph Etienne Blerzy, and notably the bronzier, Claude Galle. In addition to executing candelabra, Hervieu supplied clock cases entitled Le Chevalier errant, Le Commerce, Le Petit Atlas and Le Buffet d’orgues, and he also executed vases, ewers, and animalier statues.
Hervieu is renowned for reproducing models, particularly girandoles, on a large scale; a common practice among bronziers in this period. From a small number of 'foundation’ models he created variants, in different sizes, by including some elements from each but configuring them differently to create new models. Thus, identical mounts in different combinations regularly feature in Hervieu’s oeuvre. The present pair is almost certainly identical to one listed in Hervieu’s posthumous sale on 2 May 1811, 'grande girandole à obélisque et chimères portant sept lumières, de un mètre huit centimeter de haut ou troi pieds quatre pouces de hauteur’. The same model, interchangeably described by Hervieu as pyramid or obelisk, was acquired by the Garde Meuble, and is now at the Ministère de la Marine, Paris (Dumonthier, op. cit., plate 18, no. 1). Another closely related pair but with additional candle branches is in a private collection (illustrated Augarde, op. cit., p. 81, fig. 28), and another pair sold Bergé, 25 June 2008, lot 239 for 158,000 euros.
A model of the same form with identical trio of adossed owls on a patinated bronze sphere, a reoccurring motif in Hervieu’s work, swagged ram’s masks, comparable paw feet and identical mounts representing three depictions of Ariadne, the immortal wife of the wine-god, Dionysos, but terminating in an ‘antique’ vase finial with five candle branches, the property of the Mobilier Nationale, is in the hôtel de la Monnaie (Dumonthier, op. cit., plate 19, no. 3). Another, attributed to Martin-Guillaume Biennais but more likely by Hervieu with respect to the originality of its composition, is in le salon des Glaces, château du Grand Trianon, Versailles (Ledoux-Lebard, op.cit., pp. 118-119). The latter features identical candle branches, the same adossed owls on a sphere, and Ariadne but terminates in an 'antique’ vase finial, and has sphinx block feet. The Ariadne appliques are almost certainly after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (d. 1823) whose very similar figures ornament painted wall panels at Malmaison, which in turn derive from the antique, similar bacchantes feature on frescos formerly at Pompei (de Groër, op. cit., p. 44, fig. 66).
LOUIS-AUGUSTE HERVIEU
In circa 1783, Louis-Auguste Hervieu inherited the prestigious and established workshop of his father, Louis-Barthélemy Hervieu, a ciseleur, with a glittering client base that included Philippe Caffieri, Jean-François Oeben, Edme-Jean Gallien, François-Thomas Germain and Louis- François Gobert, all fournisseurs to the Crown. The financial accounts of Hervieu père illustrate the extent of his business operations, in 1763, the craftsman was owed the significant sum of 7,721 livres by the ébéniste, Oeben, and in 1774, the sculptor, Caffieri had an outstanding debt of 6,313 livres. Furthermore, Hervieu père’s private clients included Gustave III of Sweden, le marquis de Ménars and the Lepaute brothers who were clockmakers. While the career of Louis-Auguste Hervieu was marginally less brilliant than that of his father, he also had important clients, Lepaute (uncle and nephew), the goldsmith, Joseph Etienne Blerzy, and notably the bronzier, Claude Galle. In addition to executing candelabra, Hervieu supplied clock cases entitled Le Chevalier errant, Le Commerce, Le Petit Atlas and Le Buffet d’orgues, and he also executed vases, ewers, and animalier statues.
Hervieu is renowned for reproducing models, particularly girandoles, on a large scale; a common practice among bronziers in this period. From a small number of 'foundation’ models he created variants, in different sizes, by including some elements from each but configuring them differently to create new models. Thus, identical mounts in different combinations regularly feature in Hervieu’s oeuvre. The present pair is almost certainly identical to one listed in Hervieu’s posthumous sale on 2 May 1811, 'grande girandole à obélisque et chimères portant sept lumières, de un mètre huit centimeter de haut ou troi pieds quatre pouces de hauteur’. The same model, interchangeably described by Hervieu as pyramid or obelisk, was acquired by the Garde Meuble, and is now at the Ministère de la Marine, Paris (Dumonthier, op. cit., plate 18, no. 1). Another closely related pair but with additional candle branches is in a private collection (illustrated Augarde, op. cit., p. 81, fig. 28), and another pair sold Bergé, 25 June 2008, lot 239 for 158,000 euros.
A model of the same form with identical trio of adossed owls on a patinated bronze sphere, a reoccurring motif in Hervieu’s work, swagged ram’s masks, comparable paw feet and identical mounts representing three depictions of Ariadne, the immortal wife of the wine-god, Dionysos, but terminating in an ‘antique’ vase finial with five candle branches, the property of the Mobilier Nationale, is in the hôtel de la Monnaie (Dumonthier, op. cit., plate 19, no. 3). Another, attributed to Martin-Guillaume Biennais but more likely by Hervieu with respect to the originality of its composition, is in le salon des Glaces, château du Grand Trianon, Versailles (Ledoux-Lebard, op.cit., pp. 118-119). The latter features identical candle branches, the same adossed owls on a sphere, and Ariadne but terminates in an 'antique’ vase finial, and has sphinx block feet. The Ariadne appliques are almost certainly after designs by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (d. 1823) whose very similar figures ornament painted wall panels at Malmaison, which in turn derive from the antique, similar bacchantes feature on frescos formerly at Pompei (de Groër, op. cit., p. 44, fig. 66).