A museum quality pair of carved wood candlesticks
Carved prunus mahaleb (bois de Sainte-Lucie) wood. Foot and shaft turned and carved separately then screw-mounted. H ca. 17.5 cm.
Nancy, in the manner of César Bagard (1620 - 1709), late 17th C.
This rare pair of candlesticks was carved from a very special type of wood. The so-called "Bois de Sainte-Lucie", comes from a forest that surrounded a chapel dedicated to St. Lucy, located in Sampigny on the Meuse near Nancy, south of Verdun. The cherry trees of Sainte-Lucie, a type of Vistula cherry, only grow in this geographical area. The wood of this tree, which can grow up to 8 m high, is of dense quality and a strikingly beautiful golden-red colour, ideal for fine carving. After the war-related ban on gold and silver in 1689, the material, like the faience produced in France, offered an alternative for buyers of luxury objects. When designing these objects, craftsmen adopted motifs and forms from contemporary goldsmith's work, such as the fine foliate tendrils in relief on the base of this chandelier.
The most famous craftsman to have worked with this precious wood was César Bagard (1620-1709) from Nancy. Today, the wood is also called "bois de Bagard" after him. In addition to carved sculptures, his workshop also produced numerous everyday objects such as mirror frames, wig boxes, powder compacts and tobacco graters.
Literature
Cf. a similar candlestick, albeit with the arms of alliance of Duke Gustav Samuel Leopold of the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Countess Palatine Dorothea von Veldenz, in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer.
For a further pair in museum possession, see the Victoria & Albert Museum London Collection, acc. no. 961-1855.