A Pair of Monumental Louis XVI Style Standing Vase Candelabra

1895

A pair of monumental Louis XVI style standing vase candelabra (French, 1895) by Alfred Beurdeley Fils of Paris. The pair flank the grand staircase on the 2nd floor of The Breakers. The urn-shaped bodies are composed of Egyptian verde antique marble inset with median bands of veined Carrara marble elaborately overlaid with chiseled ormolu in the form of scrolling foliage. Two ormolu vase handles in the form of winged sirens emanate from the body. The lip rims are decorated with an egg-and-dart ormolu molding. Ormolu lion masks are mounted on the lower Carrara marble band. The bases are overlaid with pierced and gadrooned ormolu cups. The urn bodies are raised on cylindrical verde antique marble socles supported on ormolu mounted Carra marble pedestals. The bodies are surmounted by large ten-armed candelabra. The candelabra are supported by four scrolled legs chiseled with grotesque bird heads. The candle arms emanate from a baluster column topped by a flambeau urn finial. The trumpet shaped curved candle branches are in two tiers with foliage and fruit swags hanging from the lower. The arms terminate in flared foliate drip pans and candle nozzles.

French

marble

ormolu

height: 84"

Gift of Gladys R. Thomas, Cornelia Coudenhove-Kalergi, and Eugene Roberts, 1972.

PSNC.2567.1 - .2