Pair of Gilt Bronze Espagnolettes à Aigrettes Régence Period circa 1725

An exceptional pair of freestanding gilt bronze mounts of substantial scale, each modelled as a female bust rising from an elaborate cartouche of acanthus scrollwork and shellwork, the head crowned with a tall aigrette of stylised feathers descending in soft curls at the temples. The bust emerges above a central coquille flanked by scrolled leafage, the composition tapering below into a foliate shaft terminating in a scrolled toe. The reverse is hollow cast in the traditional Parisian manner, with a flat vertical mounting bed and a single circular fixing hole at the base.

The chasing of the hair, the modelling of the aigrette and the crispness of the shell and acanthus vocabulary are of the very first quality, characteristic of the finest Parisian bronziers of the Régence. Each mount preserves its original mercury gilding of a warm honey tone, with only the gentle rubbing and soft patination which come with age, and shows no trace of later regilding, restoration or repair. Bronzes of this model, scale and date surviving in such original condition are rarely encountered on the market.

Original Function
The scale of the present pair, the vertical mounting bed and the single fixing hole at the base admit of two readings. The mounts may derive from a hitherto unrecorded bureau of the small group of bureaux à espagnolettes à aigrettes documented by Alexandre Pradère, from which they were removed at an unknown date, or they may have been conceived from the outset as freestanding architectural applications drawn from the same model family. Both readings place the pair within the immediate vocabulary of the workshop responsible for the documented bureaux.

Dimensions
Height: 40 cm
Weight: 2.2 kg each

Literature
The model of espagnolette à aigrette treated here belongs to the group of mounts studied by Alexandre Pradère in his catalogue raisonné of Charles Cressent, associated in particular with two documented bureaux carrying espagnolettes cast from directly comparable models:
Alexandre Pradère, Charles Cressent, sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent, Dijon, Faton, 2003, pp. 124 to 125, cat. 50 (bureau à espagnolettes à aigrettes estampillé Carel, ancienne collection Bensimon) and cat. 51 (bureau plat, Cincinnati Art Museum, inv. 1977.138, ancienne collection Martha B. Rockefeller).
Pradère establishes that this espagnolette model was cast repeatedly for a small group of bureaux produced by the Cressent workshop in the years around 1725 to 1730. The correspondence in the treatment of the female bust, the aigrette, the central coquille and the acanthus scrollwork inscribes the present pair firmly within the workshop vocabulary of this group.

Condition
Both mounts retain the original mercury gilding on the visible faces, with the gentle rubbing and warm patination expected of a Parisian ormolu of this date. The reverses show the natural bronze colour with the light superficial oxidation typical of the period. No losses, no restorations, no later regilding.