Pair of candelabra signed Chiboust, Paris Empire period

Monumental pair of finely chiseled bronze candelabra, gilded with mercury and patinated.

The rectangular bases have an antique patina and rest on pedestals decorated with friezes of lotus flowers.
Each side is decorated with a mercury-gilded bronze ornament representing wreaths of flowers intertwined with ribbons and trophies with quivers and torches intertwined in a lyre.
Above, a winged fame dressed in a large diaphanous dress which floats in the air stands on a half-sphere.
Hair styled in the antique style with beautiful wavy hair held by a ribbon, she gazes fixedly at the horizon and holds at arm's length a crown from which springs a large bouquet of seven lights.
It is composed of a straight central part simulating a quiver ending with a brandon in the lower part and a bobèche with lotus flowers in the upper part.
All around, six scrolled arms of lights are highlighted with acanthus and decorated with central scrolls of palm leaves; they support cups with artichoke leaves in the center of which are placed the six bobèches decorated with strigils.

Exceptional quality of carving and mercury gilding, original patina.

Some of the reverses of the bronzes on the base are signed “Chiboust” for the bronzier Pierre Chiboust, active in Paris between 1779 and 1824.

Parisian work from the Empire period attributable to Claude-François Rabiat and Pierre Chiboust.

The original design that inspired our candelabra is the work of architects Percier and Fontaine. Made for the boudoir of Empress Joséphine at the Palais de St Cloud around 1802, it is today preserved in a collection of drawings at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Inv. No. 63-535-20)

Close models:

- Metropolitan Museum New York (Inv. No. 26.256.2)
- Christies Paris, June 25, 2008, lot 195 (72,500 euros)
- Sotheby’s Paris, April 6, 2011, lot 182, (108,750 euros)