A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-1
A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-2
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A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-1A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-2A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-3A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-4A large pair of silver gilt girandoles - image-5

Lot 203 Dα

A large pair of silver gilt girandoles

Auction 1182 - overview Cologne
15.07.2021, 11:00 - The Exceptional Bernard De Leye Collection
Estimate: 80.000 € - 90.000 €
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A large pair of silver gilt girandoles

The slender tapering shafts decorated with trident and dolphin motifs resting on round feet with bands of palmettes. The four spiralling openwork branches decorated with finely chased foliage and palmettes; the middle section with four models of swans surrounding the central fifth nozzle. H 53 cm, weight 8,390 g.
Paris, marks of Martin-Guillaume Biennais, 1809 – 19.

Alongside Henry Auguste and Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, Martin-Guillaume Biennais was among the most renowned Parisian goldsmiths of the 19th century. He received numerous commissions from the court of Napoleon I and various ruling courts throughout Europe. His workshop on the rue St. Honoré employed, at times, over 600 people and it had already supplied Biennais with a considerable fortune by the time Napoleon appointed him “Orfèvre de Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi” after being crowned emperor in 1815.

Provenance

Formerly in the possession of the Princes Alliata di Montereale.

Literature

Cf. an almost identical pair of candelabra created by Biennais in 1807 for the marriage of Napoleon's younger brother Jérôme Bonaparte to Katharina von Württemberg, auctioned at Christie's Geneva, 13 Nov. 1995, lot 193.