Ref. 1779

Lacarriere et Cie

Bronze-caster
(attributed to)

Pair of Chandeliers

France
Circa 1900

Bronze, Glass

Height : 120 cm (47,2 in.) ; Diameter : 177 cm (69,6 in.)

Provenance : Former Bank place de l’Opéra, Paris

Exceptional pair of large patinated bronze chandeliers with gilded highlights with 16 external lights and 8 internal lights. They are composed of a fluted crown receiving golden flames, punctuated by 8 leafy light-arms ending in gadrooned binets and beaded bobeches, enclosing an opaque glass dome centered with an engraved star ending in a pine cone. It is topped with medallions decorated with rosettes alternating with 8 engraved photophores from which emerge 8 double-uprights in patinated bronze decorated with acanthus leaves, joining to form a canopy topped with acanthus and highlighted with scalloped drapery.

biography

Lacarrière established a factory in 1825 at 3 bis, rue Sainte-Elisabeth. He specialized and excelled in the application of bronze in lighting fixtures. He received an honorable mention in 1834, a bronze medal in 1839, and a silver medal in 1844 for a large candelabra with a triangular base, prefiguring the one presented at the Universal Exhibition in London in 1862. He also participated in the design of the chandelier for the Queen’s Theatre in London. From 1851 to 1870, he changed his company name several times.
Lacarrière, Delatour et Cie (active in 1870) cast and chiseled the majority of the lampposts, candelabras and chandeliers of the Paris Opera, including that of the hall, designed by Charles Garnier, the architect of the Opera, and modeled by Corboz. At the Universal Exhibition of 1878, the catalog wrote that “their exhibition demonstrates great skill and very pure taste in lighting bronzes intended for private homes.” In 1900, the company named Lacarrière et Cie supplied the fourteen monumental candelabras of the Pont Alexandre III, in Paris; a true tour de force at the time, since the largest of these pieces weighed 667 kg, for a height of 4.50 m and a diameter of 4.70 m.