Candelabra (one of a pair)

Description

This object for the dining table is part of a vast service made for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline on the occasion of her marriage to the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, Sixth Prince of Sulmona.

In the years after the French Revolution, architects and designers adopted the visual language of ancient Greece and Rome to express the new imperial order. Napoleon, hoping to promote Paris’s luxury trades, commissioned several silver dinner services as gifts to be sent abroad. The slender outlines and smooth surfaces of the objects in the Borghese service contrast with the rich decoration.

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte I, between 1809 and 1819 as a gift to Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese (per Paris Assay marks for 1809-1819, engraved and embossed Napoleonic Crowns surmounting the Borghese Crests, and inscriptions “orfevre de Lrs. Mtes. Imperialism et Royales a Paris” on pieces of the service); private collection of Pauline Bonaparte and Prince Camillo Borghese; thence by descent, Borghese Palace, Rome; sold their sale Rome, Apartment du Prince Borghese, 1892 (Lot 847, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); possibly with Antonio Licata, Naples, 1892. With Ercole Canessa, dealer, Naples, Paris, or New York, by 1892; sold to Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Chicago, before 1924; sold her sale, New York, Anderson Galleries, The Collection of Mrs. Rockefeller McCormick, 1934 (lots 628-774, copy of catalog in curatorial file, see publication history for exact lot); collection of Charles V. and Catherine Barker Spaulding Hickox, New York, NY, until 1966; given to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Candelabra (one of a pair)

Martin-Guillaume Biennais

c. 1795-1819

Accession Number

158408

Medium

Gilt silver and gilt bronze

Dimensions

H.: 54.6 cm (21 1/2 in.); 52.8 × 24.8 cm (20 3/4 × 9 3/4 in.)

Classification

candleholder - candelabra

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Charles V. Hickox