Pair Of Silver Candlesticks By Freboul, Montpellier (france), 1736-1737

- Pair of candlesticks
- Molten, soldered and chiseled silver
- Jean-Etienne Freboul, master goldsmith in Montpellier (France) from 1719 to 1752
- Montpellier, 1736-1737
- Height: 23 cm; diameter: 14.2cm; weight: 1,220g (605g & 615g)
- Very good condition, beautiful patina

- Pair of candlesticks, each of which rests on a molded hexagonal base, lined with a large gadroon molding, highlighted by a flat brace. The six-sided baluster shaft is made up in its lower part of a gadrooned knot, then of a large molded bulge supporting a decoration of gadrooned shells. The molded bin takes up the structure of the whole with a hexagonal cutout.
- The rim with this characteristic bulge is associated, until now, with the production of the Lille workshop of Pierre Tiron and his widow whose production spread between 1731 and 1741 [Cartier]. If the shaft is identical, these Lille candlesticks are distinguished by a round base lined with gadroons associated with a round top decorated with lambrequins or lanceolate leaves. For the Generality of Montepellier, this is the only pair of candlesticks with shafts that are known to us, but a second pair with identical shafts, without the gadroon decoration, dated 1737-1738 by the goldsmith François Simon de Mâcon is listed in the Rothschild collections.

- Master goldsmith: I between two points of remedy // FF crowned for Jean-Etienne Freboul, master goldsmith in Montpellier from 1719 to 1752 [Thuile, T. III & Helft n°562d]; warden's mark: I between two points of crowned remedy on the letters MPL, Montpellier, 1736-1737 [Thuile, T. II & Helft n°559a]; charge: three crowned stars, Montpellier, 1733-1738 [Thuile, T. II & Helft n°561b]; discharge (base molding): shield with crowned fleur-de-lys, Montpellier, 1733-1738 [11, T. II & 8, n°562c]. At the request of Pierre Feau, tax controller, the charges and discharges were replaced with the same deformed punches, on July 11, 1733 until the change in 1738.

- Ref. : [Cartier] Cartier, Nicole & Cartier-Stone, Isabelle: “Les orfèvres de Lille”, Volumes I & II, Ed. Peeters, Paris-Louvain, 2008; [Deguara1] Deguara, Laurent: “Goldsmithery of Montpellier and Languedoc, Generality of Montpellier, 17th & 18th century”, Exhibition at the Languedoc Museum from June 20 to October 19, 1996, Société Archéologique de Montpellier, 1996; [Deguara2] Deguara, Laurent: “Goldsmith work”, Languedoc Museum, exhibition from October 21, 2011 to June 30, 2012, Montpellier, 2011; [Helft] Helft, Jacques: “Poinçons des Provinces Françaises”, Ed. F. de Nobele, Paris, 1968; [Thuile] Thuile, Jean: “History of goldsmithing in Languedoc, Generalities of Montpellier and Toulouse”, Ed. F. de Nobele, Paris, 1964