Pair Of Gilt Bronze Sconces

Pair of sconces with two arms of lights in gilded and chiseled bronze decorated with flowers, scrolls and acanthus leaves. Each of the two arms offers a different bobèche. Model by André-Charles Boulle Regency period Usual restorations H. 35 x L. 27 cm The pair of wall lights in our study can be compared to the models by André-Charles Boulle which remained in the project or which are today unlisted, and which have come down to us thanks to the drawings of the famous cabinetmaker. These boards are a very precious testimony for the master, because no cabinetmaker had published a corpus of his creations and his projects. Among these boards, let us retain number 8, since the master represented sconces there as well as arms “for large cabinets and arms for fireplaces” which echo our pair. This plate was commissioned by Pierre-Jean Mariette who published them around 1707 in a work entitled “New designs of furniture and works of bronze and marquetry invented and engraved by André-Charles Boulle”. We find sconces with a similar composition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, as well as at the Louvre Museum. A detail strikes us in the composition of these wall lights: the bobeches are different on the two arms, this is a typical element of its production as we can notice on a pair of wall lights reproduced in the book “André- Charles Boulle - a new style for Europe” written under the direction of Jean Nérée Ronfort (pages 272-273) and today kept at the Museum of Decorative Arts. A rare fact which deserves to be highlighted, André-Charles Boulle casts his own bronzes. This is an exception in the very compartmentalized corporate system of the Ancien Régime, where carpenters cannot under any circumstances sculpt their seats, nor even upholsterers assemble their own frames. But André-Charles Boulle bears the title of “King’s ordinary cabinetmaker, scissor and marquetry maker”. Enjoying royal protection, the jurors and masters cannot enter its workshops at random as they are authorized to do elsewhere. His familiarity with bronze work therefore allows him to offer not only richly decorated furniture, but also, as the subject of our study attests, decorative elements entirely in bronze.