Offered by Tobogan Antiques
Charming chandelier in chased, gilded, and patinated bronze with seven lights attr. to A.-E. Beurdeley.. The central shaft features a blued bronze bowl adorned on its body with friezes and foliate scrolls in gilded bronze, surmounted by a twisted fluted column with asparagus-tip motifs, ending in a flame finial and a seed-shaped element. Three female figures terminating in acanthus leaves each support two twisted, foliate scrolling light arms. The whole is suspended by three chains designed to imitate tasseled rope.
Related work :
Our chandelier is inspired by the chandelier in gilded and blued bronze, attributed to François Rémond (1747-1812), End of the 18th Century. Given in 1808 by Napoléon to Cambacérès for his Parisian house, the actual hôtel de Roquelaure. Exposed in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris (Inv. CAM 146)
Biography :
In 1875, In 1875, Alfred-Emmanuel Beurdeley (1847-1919) was at first assistant to and later succeeded his father Louis-Auguste Beurdeley, one of the main cabinet-makers of the Second Empire, specializing in 18th century furniture. Louis-Auguste was the star whenever he exhibited and was “most favored by the royal and imperial families”. Although he produced the same kind of works of art as his father, Alfred Beurdeley was also a very well-known art collector and a skilled bronze sculptor. With Dasson, Grohé, Sauvresy and Fourdinois, the most famous artists of the period, he took part in the 1878 Universal Exhibition and won the gold medal. Crowned with glory he went so far as to open a shop in New York. His participation in the 1883 Amsterdam Universal Exhibition drew considerable attention to his work and “Alfred Beurdeley, Fabricant de bronzes d’art” was then awarded the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest official mark of recognition. He thus won the respect of both the government and contemporary art critics. His last presentation was during the 1889 Universal and International Exhibition, when the director of the Exhibition wrote in his report: “The talent of Mr Beurdeley is self evident when one inspects his furniture.”
François Rémond (1747-1812) began his apprenticeship in 1763. In 1774, he became maître in the guild of bronze guilders. He worked for the mercant-mercer Daguerre et created worked in the Turkish style then in vogue or Louis XVI and his family. He collaborated with the chaser Pierre Gouthière on some of his greatest masterpieces before 1783, and designed bronze ornaments for the cabinet-maker Jean-Henri Riesener. In August 1774, he met the cabinet-maker David Roentgen and began a collaboration with him : most of Roentgen pieces were decorated with bronzes made in Paris by Rémond with sometimes sculptures by artists such as Louis-Simon Boizot.
