185. 185W A pair of Louis-Philippe ormolu twelve-light sphinx candelabra, circa 1830, in the manner of Thomire & Cie. Each with quiver-shaped support cast with spirally turned olive foliate branches surmounted by two rows of each six lights issuing from palmettes, the scrolling branches terminating in palmette nozzles, headed by a flaming finial, and on scrolling tripartite base with addorsed sphinxes on a concave-fronted triangular base with tip-leaf motif border and on a white marble socle, 39cm wide, 113cm high (15in wide, 44in high) Provenance Private European Collection These exceptional candelabra relate to the later production of one of the most celebrated bronzier fondeur-ciseleur, Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843). Thomire had his own atelier after working for the renowned bronzier Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813) and with ciseleur-doreur du roi Jean-Louis Prieur (d.circa 1785-1790). Famed for his production of finely-chased gilt-bronze objets de luxe, a large quantity of which were commissioned by the Crown, Thomire frequently collaborated with Marchands Merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre. In 1809, Thomire was made ciseleur de l'Empereur by Napoléon, his firm becoming fournisseur de leurs Majestés in 1811. Having produced an unparalleled oeuvre, Thomire relinquished control of his business to his sons-in-law in 1823. The firm, came to be known as: Thomire et Cie and remained successful throughout the Restauration, before ceasing to trade in 1852. It is interesting to note that a pair of large scale candelabra by Denière using the similar decorative repertoire as the tripartite base with winged griffins instead of sphinxes, and closely related palmette branches were delivered to the Palais des Tuileries in 1832, see Marie-France Dupuy-Baylet, L'Heure le Feu La Lumière, Les Bronzes du Mobilier National 1800-1870, Dijon, p.210, pp.280-281, n.153. Various related versions of these candelabra by Denière are conserved in the Garde-Meuble National, most of these were used at the Palais des Tuileries. Furthermore, the exact same design for the tripartite sphinx base to our candelabra is reproduced by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand in his Recueil et parallèle des édifices de tout genre, anciens et modernes, published in Paris, 1799-1801, pl.75: 'Détails romains. Autels, trépieds, candélabres, lampes, meubles', recueil is in the bibliothèque des Arts décoratifs, Paris.