Monumental Pair of Late 19C French Empire Brass Wall Sconces

Published by Nevan O Shaughnessy on May 31, 2023May 31, 2023

PRESENTING A EXCEPTIONAL, RARE and MONUMENTAL Pair of Late 19C French Empire Brass Wall Sconces.

These matching pair of wall sconces or wall lights are LARGE!

Made in France, circa 1890 of solid brass in the Empire Style.

Each, is three and a half foot tall (41 inches) and each has 5 branches/lights, with frosted glass flame/torch shades. Unusually, the branches, lights and shades all point downwards, probably due to the size of each sconce.

They are flush mounted wall sconces/lights and weigh around 30 lbs each.

At the top they have the classic ribbon bow.

As you move downwards, the have a large convex medallion/armorial medallion, with swags and laurel wreaths below

The lower portion has a central tassel swag over a fluted architectural column which ends with an acorn/flower bulb style finial.

Each light branch is decorated with a floral curved and scrolling leaf.

The rear of the sconces has all the ‘oxidization’ one would expect from late 19th Century pieces.

Fully operational and in great condition.

Good quality casting. Not marked, but were undoubtedly made by a top French maker!

A ‘PERFECT’ match for the French Empire Bedroom Set, we have in our Collection, as you can see from the pics.

WE ‘DARE’ YOU TO FIND ANOTHER PAIR!

The Empire style (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃.piːʁ], style Empire) is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 during the Consulate and the First French Empire periods, although its life span lasted until the late-1820s. From France it spread into much of Europe and the United States.

The Empire style originated in and takes its name from the rule of the Emperor Napoleon I in the First French Empire, when it was intended to idealize Napoleon’s leadership and the French state. The previous fashionable style in France had been the Directoire style, a more austere and minimalist form of Neoclassicism that replaced the Louis XVI style, and the new Empire style brought a full return to ostentatious richness. The style corresponds somewhat to the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, and the Regency style in Britain.

All Empire ornament is governed by a rigorous spirit of symmetry reminiscent of the Louis XIV style. Generally, the motifs on a piece’s right and left sides correspond to one another in every detail; when they don’t, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition: antique heads with identical tresses falling onto each shoulder, frontal figures of Victory with symmetrically arrayed tunics, identical rosettes or swans flanking a lock plate, etc. Like Louis XIV, Napoleon had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule, most notably the eagle, the bee, stars, and the initials I (for Imperator) and N (for Napoleon), which were usually inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs used include: figures of Nike bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, figures of antique chariots, winged putti, mascarons of Apollo, Hermes and the Gorgon, swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras, sphinxes, bucrania, sea horses, oak wreaths knotted by thin trailing ribbons, climbing grape vines, poppy rinceaux, rosettes, palm branches, and laurel. There’s a lot of Greco-Roman ones: stiff and flat acanthus leaves, palmettes, cornucopias, beads, amphoras, tripods, imbricated disks, caduceuses of Mercury, vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially lyres). Despite their antique derivation, the fluting and triglyphs so prevalent under Louis XVI are abandoned. Egyptian Revival motifs are especially common at the beginning of the period: scarabs, lotus capitals, winged disks, obelisks, pyramids, figures wearing nemeses, caryatids en gaine supported by bare feet and with women Egyptian headdresses.