ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXIS DECAIX, AFTER THE MODEL SUPPLIED TO THOMAS HOPE FOR DUCHESS STREET

The candlesticks are conceived in the antique style after the French manner as introduced to London around 1800 by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d.1831), and popularised through the publication of the guide to his Duchess Street mansion entitled Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807. Their 'oil-lamp' nozzles stand on candelabrum-baluster stems with hollow-sided 'altar' pedestals and addorsed sphinx-monopodia perched on their palmette-enriched plinths. The lamp-bowls, with flames issuing from their triple palm-decorated spouts, are embellished with bas-reliefs of butterflies approaching palm-shaped torches. Their balusters, issuing from a palm-calyx, are wreathed by triumphal palm-bearing nike figures attending flaming altars. The sphinxes have twisted hair after the bacchic manner, as discussed in Hope's guide (ibid, pl. LVII).
An identical pair of candlesticks is illustrated on one of the 'griffin' sideboard-tables in a detail sketch (pl. XV, no. 3 and in closer detail in pl. XLIV), but not in the room view of the Aurora breakfast-room, where two 'griffin'-tables stood (pl. VII). It is probable that there was a pair of this model of candlesticks on each of the tables although it is not known how many pairs exist. One pair, with firm Hope provenance, was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 6 July 1995, lot 9 (£40,000, including premium) whilst a single candlestick is shown in situ in the Drawing room at Slane Castle, Co. Meath in J. O'Brien and D. Guinness, Great Irish Houses and Castles, London, 1992, p. 161.