Swan candelabrum (one of a pair)

Johann Joachim Kändler|Meissen Manufactory

swan, ca. 1745–50; gilt-bronze mount, ca. 1750 · Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mount · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

In eighteenth-century France, luxury merchants known as marchands-merciers combined expensive porcelain from Meissen with French gilt-bronze mounts to create distinctive forms of opulence, seen in this extravagant pair of candelabra featuring swans floating amidst flowering branches of gilt bronze.

Artist

Johann Joachim Kändler|Meissen Manufactory

Date

swan, ca. 1745–50; gilt-bronze mount, ca. 1750

Medium

Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mount

Culture

German, Meissen with French mount

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019