Very nice pair of "gossip" torches  in chiseled gilt bronze and brown patina from the Consulate-Empire period.  Their flared shaft, like half of their base, has a stylized bat wing decoration, characteristic of PP Thomire's “gossip” candlesticks. The choice of this decorative element can be put in parallel with the darkness of the small intimate living rooms that were the bathrooms and the wardrobes where very few windows were provided. The upper part of the barrel ends with a guilloché ring in crosses before the beginning of the binet, whose cup is decorated with gadroons. The last half of their base guilloché with a frieze of palmettes.  These typical models were arranged in the rooms reserved for the toilet or dressing. One can easily imagine that their size should have made their handling and position in these private rooms easier.

I propose here the known and referenced model of the famous bronzier Pierre Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), supplier of the Imperial Furniture Guard, and many European royal courts. Indeed, in 1810, Thomire delivered a series of five identical pairs for the Palace of Fontainebleau, one of which was intended for the wardrobe of the Emperor's small apartment on the ground floor, while the other four were to occupy the bath. This rare pair of torches is illustrated and detailed in several books:

-Jean-Pierre Samoyault: "Clocks and furnishing bronzes entered under the First Empire", on page 203. -Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet: "Bronze and crystal", page 411. -Tardy: "The most beautiful French clocks", page 254.  Very good state of preservation, original gilding.  Consulate-Empire period  Artist: Pierre Philippe Thomire  As with all of my art objects and furniture, I am very careful to be able to offer them to you at a very low expert estimate.