Date: about 1700-10
Maker: Cabinetwork attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732)
Materials: Walnut, ebony, turtleshell, brass, tin, gilt bronze and steel
Measurements: 132 x 44.5 x 34 cm
Inv. no. F417-18
In the 18th century, these candlestands would have supported candelabra and illuminated an elegant interior, with light dancing across the surfaces of the gilt bronze and marquetry. However, their overall shape, with a tripod base and sectional stem, broadly recalls Renaissance altar candlesticks.
Each candlestand consists of 18 individual pieces, made of walnut but decorated in ebony, marquetry in turtleshell, tin and brass, as well as gilt-bronze mounts.
The bases have three scrolling, volute-shaped feet in both première- and contre-partie marquetry, between which are sumptuous lambrequins. These are decorated with tin marquetry, inlaid with turtleshell, behind which blue paper has been placed – a method Boulle used to allude to the valuable hardstone lapis lazuli.
The lambrequins are decorated with gilt-bronze mounts of female masks, crowned with laurel branches, while they are fringed by gilt-bronze tassels that look so lifelike as to suggest they were cast from actual textiles.
Elaborate contre-partie in tin and gilt-bronze mounts envelop the stems of the candlestands. The balusters, with their elaborate marquetry of pewter and turtleshell and finely detailed gilt-bronze mounts, are set on ebony bases.
These are supported by three hooves each, which might allude to the classical deity Pan, the god of nature, as well as the form of ancient tripod incense burners.
Above the baluster-shaped sections are mounts with youthful male masks, while the tops of the candlestands have gilt-bronze laurel leaf borders and are inlaid with première-partie marquetry in the centre, framed by contre-partie.
Boulle worked on several designs for this type of candlestand and probably produced them over a considerable period: workshop inventories from both 1715 and 1720 show Boulle had several in stock.
A drawing in the Musée des Arts décoratifs attributed to Boulle shows two variations of candlestand design, one with a baluster shape like that of the pair in the Wallace Collection, the other with a caryatid figure as a stem.
Two other models can be found in Boulle’s series of engravings, his Nouveaux Desseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et de Marqueterie, published around 1708.
Interestingly, the candlestand on the left in the engraving is named a ‘guéridon’ (small table), while the model on the right is described as a ‘torchère’ (lamp). The Wallace Collection examples combine components from both these designs.
It is possible the candlestands were acquired by the 3rd Marquess of Hertford, as a pair of similar description were inventoried in the dining room of his residence on Park Lane, Dorchester House, in 1842. They had certainly entered the collection by 1872, when Sir Richard Wallace loaned them to the Bethnal Green Museum.