Pair of French Rock-Crystal and Gilt-Bronze Candlesticks Circa 1950

This large and dramatic blown and cast-glass candlestick, with a blue-and-white spiral in its stem, was most likely made in England around 1800. It comes from the collection of the legendary aesthete Baron Max Fould-Springer, who lived at the Palais de Royaumont outside Paris, which on his death was inherited by his sister Liliane, Baroness de Rothschild...

This trompe l'oeil drawing depicts the artist's tools -- a black and a red crayon, and a folding steel ruler that was painted with silver pigments, which have blackened with age. They're shown on a sheaf of papers that include a medieval manuscript page, a musical score, and a group of prints. The unifying theme is the artistic patronage of the Medici, the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, who intermarried with the Habsburgs, who were the Holy Roman Emperors. Among the papers are prints by Stefano Della Bella, the Florentine artist who worked for the Medici. They depict a negro page with a horse, and portraits of Lorenzo Lippi...

Carved and polished, tiered, faceted, rock crystal candlesticks with incised brass detail. Rock crystal from Madagascar, modern fabrication in France.

Pair of bronze dore and rock crystal candlesticks.