Flambeaux russes aux têtes de bélier

Pair of tall, ram-headed ormolu candlesticks.
Ormolu.
Russia.
ca. 1810-1820.
h. 13 in.

These candlesticks are part of a group of decorative bronzes associated with Moscow productions from the early 19th century. An identical pair is located at Arkhangelskoye, near Moscow, in the Prince’s Study, decorated between 1810 and 1820 with a suite of Karelian birch furniture adorned with ormolu mounts.

A nearly identical pair of candlesticks was part of Sir Richard Wallace’s collection at Hertford House. Through Jacques Seligmann, it was acquired by Mrs. Henry Walters and subsequently sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York from April 30 to May 3, 1941, where the design was attributed to Gouthière. More recently, a set of four nearly identical candlesticks was sold from the Nelson Grimaldi Seabra collection at Christie’s in New York on October 22, 2003, for $74,090. Even more recently, an identical pair — except for the engraved motifs around the drip pans, which are less refined — was sold for $8,820 at Christie’s (New York, April 17, 2024). This pair originated from the Wanecq gallery.

Sources

Valery Rapoport, Arkhangelskoye, Saint-Petersburg, 1984 ; Igor Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers 1760-1830, Moscou, 2003.