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Candlestick Corneille van Clève (1646–1732) , Probably based on a model by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690), Probably based on design by France: Date: About 1700

Medium: Gilt-bronze

Height: 34 cm
Diameter: 17.5 cm, base

Inv: F28

Location: East Galleries I

This candlestick and its pair (F29) bear some resemblance to a model of candlestick designed by Van Clève and executed in the early 18th century in silver gilt by the goldsmith Nicolas de Launay. They share the same model of candleholder and general idea of a twisted figure seated on a vase holding a candle (see other candlesticks in the Wallace Collection, F30–31). The goldsmith Claude I Ballin also owned models for a pair of candlesticks depicting a seated man and woman holding a horn of plenty that supported a candleholder. The models are also reminiscent, however, of February and May in the group of twelve full-scale seated figures of the Months, bearing fluted horns of plenty and single candle branches, carried out to the designs of Le Brun in the 1670s for the 'salle octagone' of the Appartement des Bains at Versailles. From the large number of component parts – each candlestick is made up of seven separate casings, brazed together – and the mercury gilding it is likely that these are early 18th-century castings.

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