19TH CENTURY

These candelabra were conceived in the eighteenth-century French tradition of decorating bronze to resemble the finest and most expensive seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer. Such lacquered-bronze figures arguably reflect one of the most sophisticated phases of the 'goût Chinois'. Traditionally, lacquered-bronze figures have been associated almost exclusively with the Martin dynasty, both as a result of contemporary documentary references - such as the 1753 reference in the Inventory of the comtesse de Mailly - as well as the fact that they were granted a Royal Patent to protect the vernis technique which they had invented. This latter patent was further enhanced in 1744 by a renewed one for lacquer wares 'en relief dans le goût du Japon et de la Chine', and by 1748 they had opened the manufacture Royale de vernis de la chine. C. Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth Century Paris, London, 1996, however, has convincingly argued that there must have been a number of unknown craftsmen supplying such figures to the marchands-merciers, and indeed Parisian almanachs of the period often list several specialists in 'vernis'. Moreover, Jean-Félix Watin, in his Le Peintre Doreur et Vernisseur of 1772, stated that ten different recipes for lacquer were being employed in Paris at that time, as well as going on to say that by the 1740s the Martin family was suffering from widespread competition, which had inevitably resulted in the prices for lacquer wares being forced down. Eighteenth-century works comparable to this lot include a pair originally supplied to the Royal House of Savoy for the Palazzo Reale, Turin, later in the collection of Thelma Chrysler Foy and sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 22-23 May 1959, lot 667; a pair sold as part of a garniture with a clock with movement by Thiout, from the collection of Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1992, lot 7; and a pair with identical figures sold Christie’s, New York, 20 April 2007, lot 153.