A Pair of Directoire Candelabra with Poppy Flowers

Executed in chased bronze, gilt and patinated, each candelabrum sets upon a cylindrical base worked with palmettes, masks and drapery — a figure in Antique dress, the two forming a couple, who lifts a vase from which the three light-arms spring, wound with acanthus and poppies.

Two comparable pairs of this model were recorded in the French Mobilier National in 1911—one at the Palais de l’Élysée, the other at the Hôtel de la Marine, then the Ministry of the Navy—though neither matches the present pair in scale, which rises to 65 cm against the 50,5 cm of the Élysée version.

Pairs of this scale have twice reached the market in the present century: one at Sotheby’s on 28 November 2006, for £24,000; the other at Koller on 21 September 2006, for 16,000 Swiss francs.