Style Napoleon III / Ref.13200

Auguste-Louis Marquis (bronze maker) for the Maison GIROUX, Pair of torchères with 9 lights in gilded, silvered and burnished bronze, circa 1855

This sumptuous pair of torchères was made by the bronze-maker Auguste-Louis Marquis for the Maison Giroux around 1855. A sketchbook cataloguing designs of objects produced by the Maison Giroux, preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, confirms the attribution.

In its early days, the Maison Giroux traded in all manner of small objects and supplies (paints and varnishes, albums, writing paper, fans, toys, workboxes, small wares, etc.). The firm grew considerably during the first decades of the nineteenth century, and its clientele included such influential figures as the Duchess of Berry, Louis XVIII and Charles X. This expansion was due in part to the impetus given by Alphonse Giroux's sons, who joined the company in 1833. In 1855 the shop relocated to the new Opéra quarter and Ferdinand Duvinage took over the business in 1867. It is worth noting that the firm, already many times awarded, sold a bonheur du jour to Empress Eugénie on the occasion of the 1855 Universal Exhibition. This piece is today preserved at the Château de Compiègne.

Although the Maison Giroux collaborated with anonymous artists in the manner of the eighteenth-century marchands merciers, the creator of these torchères is known to us through a pair of candelabra of similar design – albeit of smaller dimensions and entirely in gilt bronze – delivered in April 1855 to the Garde-Meuble Impérial for the Palais Royal.

This pair of gilt bronze torchères by Auguste-Louis Marquis was sent to the Palais de l'Élysée in 1877, where it was placed successively in the Grand Marshal's study and then in the Salon des Dames (Les bronzes du mobilier national…, p. 303).

Our two torchères in gilt, silvered and patinated bronze rest on a cylindrical blackened-wood plinth with a square base. The theme depicted is that of the "children of silence" – winged putti holding a finger raised before their lips. With their free hand, they carry a flared quiver in gilt bronze from which emerge arrow shafts and large silvered fleurs-de-lys forming the light arms.

Crowned with a wreath of flowers, the putti are draped in fabric held by a garland of roses worn as a bandolier. The torus moulding of laurel leaves and the garland of flowers in gilt bronze on the base are representative of the Louis XVI style. A reflection of the eclecticism of the second half of the nineteenth century, our pair of torchères combines the exuberance of the Second Empire with the restraint of the Louis XVI style.

Related bibliography:
Marie-France Dupuy-Bellet, Les bronzes du mobilier national, Éditions Faton, 2005.