After Johann Joachim Kändler and attributed to Jacques or Philippe Caffieri

Exhibited by Galerie Léage

Material Meissen porcelain, chased and gilt bronze

Dimensions 75 × 42 × 36 cm

Place of Creation Meissen, Saxony and Paris, France

Price Available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

This exceptional pair of candelabra epitomizes the luxury of mid-18th-century Paris, where the most ambitious decorative objects emerged from the collaboration between porcelain manufactories, master bronziers, and the inventive vision of the marchands merciers. At their core are Meissen porcelain groups after Johann Joachim Kändler, conceived in the 1730s as part of the celebrated series of monumental animal sculptures that transformed porcelain into a fully sculptural medium. The dynamic representation of birds of prey seizing their quarry reflects Kändler’s unprecedented naturalism, based on close observation of nature and heightened by expressive movement and refined polychromy. Originally created for princely contexts in Saxony, such figures were later adapted for export and became highly prized elements within Parisian mounted objects, where their dramatic sculptural presence could be amplified by gilt-bronze frameworks.

The mounts, attributed to Jacques Caffieri or his son Philippe, display the full vitality of the rocaille taste through deeply chased acanthus scrolls, animated branches and fluid candle arms that appear to grow organically from the porcelain trunks. Rather than serving merely as supports, these bronzes extend the narrative energy of the porcelain groups, creating a unified sculptural composition in which metal and ceramic interact seamlessly.

Such integration reflects the highest level of Parisian bronze craftsmanship, associated with workshops responsible for royal commissions and the most prestigious decorative schemes of the reign of Louis XV. The likely involvement of Lazare Duvaux further situates the pair within the sphere of the marchand mercier, whose role was not simply commercial but conceptual: orchestrating the combination of disparate materials to produce objects of unprecedented richness and originality.

Comparable examples confirm both the rarity and the prestige of this type. Closely related mounted Meissen candelabra attributed to the Caffieri workshop include pairs formerly in the Borghese collection and later owned by Gustave de Rothschild, as well as a set of four associated with the ducal palace of Parma and later the Quirinal Palace. Other parallels, including bird candelabra at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and related mounted Meissen figures in private collections, demonstrate how such works circulated within princely and aristocratic contexts across Europe.

Documentary references in Duvaux’s Livre-journal describing girandoles mounted on Saxon porcelain supplied to elite patrons further reinforce the historical plausibility of such prestigious commissions.

Within this context, the present pair stands out for the exceptional quality of both its porcelain and bronze components and for the coherence of their integration. It represents not merely a luxurious lighting device but a sculptural ensemble embodying the cosmopolitan nature of rocaille taste: Saxon porcelain transformed by Parisian bronze and disseminated through the networks of French luxury commerce.

These candelabra thus encapsulate the essence of Louis XV decorative art, where technical virtuosity, artistic invention and international exchange converge to produce objects destined for the most sophisticated interiors of Europe’s elite.

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Literature

Lazare Duvaux, Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux [...]. Tome 2 [publié par M. Louis Courajod], Société des bibliophiles français, Paris, 1873.
Jules Guiffrey, Les Caffiéri, sculpteurs et fondeurs-ciseleurs : étude sur la statuaire et sur l’art du bronze en France au XVIIᵉ et au XVIIIᵉ siècle, avec sept gravures à l’eau-forte de Maurice Leloir, Paris, D. Morgand & C. Fatout, 1877 ; rééd. fac-similé, Nogent-le-Roi, J. Laget, 1993.
Gerhard Röbbig, Cabinet Pieces: The Meissen Porcelain Birds of Johann Joachim Kändler, Munich, Hirmer Publishers.
Vincent Bastien (dir.), La Fabrique du luxe, les marchands merciers parisiens au XVIIIe siècle, Musée Cognacq-Jay, 29 septembre 2018 - 27 janvier 2019, Paris, Paris Musées, 2018, pp.142-148.
Mathieu Deldicque, « La Saxe en or moulu, le goût pour les porcelaines de Meissen montées à la cour de Louis XV » dans Louis XV, passions d’un roi (1710-1774), Versailles, Domaine national du Château de Versailles et de Trianon, du 18 octobre 2022 au 19 février 2023, Paris, In Fine Éditions d’art, 2022, pp. 394-403.