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Candlestick in the form of a reclining female figure
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Candlestick in the form of a reclining female figure
Painted plaster and metal
Museum number: B7
On display: Bath Room (pre-booked tours only)
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
This figure is painted in imitation of bronze with the right arm (from just below the shoulder) and the candleholder in metal. The metal is now painted black but where this surface has worn it appears to be brass and it may be that the candle-holder was orignally unpainted, giving the impression of a bronze figure with an ormolu fitting. One of a pair with B1. The reclining figure seems to derive from a design by Louis-Simon Boizot, a sculptor who was also Director of Sculpture at Sèvres (op. 1773-1809) named 'L'Ètude', introduced by the early 1780s in hard-paste biscuit porcelain and then reproduced in bronze in various different settings. It is not known who might have modelled the figures for these candlesticks, presumably made in England.
Provenance
Unknown. In Sir John Soane's collection by 1822 when, with its pair, it is shown on the mantlepiece in the Dining Room in a watercolour view by J.M. Gandy (SM P86). This view shows the pair clearly in everyday use with tapers / spills housed in adjacent small pots on the mantlepiece. The pair are placed looking inwards towards each other with the candlestick arm outward: logical to keep the burning flame away from adjacent walls or objects.
Literature
Emile Bourgeois and Georges Lechevallier-Chevignard, Le Biscuit de Sèvres, Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, Musée national de céramique (France), Paris [1914], L'Étude No.283 Planche 34.
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