Corneille Van Cleve (1646-1732) Pair Of Great Torches

Pair of large candlesticks in finely chiseled bronze and silver eighteenth model of the famous sculptor Corneille Van Cleve for goldsmithery, one figure a naiad carried by a dolphin the binet held in the jaws of another fish. The other represents a fauna sitting on a panther and holding a cornucopia on which the binet rests. Large circular base with friezes of interlacing and florets. This model of torches benefits from the study which combines in its creation the work of the sculptor Corneille Van Cleve to that of his brother-in-law the silversmith Nicolas de Launay. Van Cleve's after-death inventory mentions several torchlight descriptions close to this model. Deliveries to the Crown of gold-plated vermeil silver specimens by De Launay in 1708 attest their collaboration. A similar model pair is kept in the Wallace Collection and another variant is in the James Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Dimensions: 39 cm high X 17 cm in diameter. Good condition, beautiful silvering, screw mounting authentic. Notes: A pair of candlesticks almost identical is part of the collections of the Louvre Museum to which it was given by Claude Sere in 2011 (Inv.OA 12372). They are presented as being by the silversmith Nicolas Delaunay (1646-1727) and executed by the sculptor Corneille Van Clève (1646-1732). These candelabra have been exhibited, Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie Antoinette, Museum of Fine Arts in San Francisco, 2013, p. 42, cat. 12. Another pair is in the Wallace collection in London (Inv.F28-9). Comparative Bibliography: P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection. Catalog of Furniture. III, London, 1996, pp. 1193-1195 Cat. exhibition, Royal Treasures from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie Antoinette, San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, 2013, p. 42, cat. 12.