A museum-quality pair of guéridons or torchères (candelabra),

Boulle workshops in Vienna, c. 1700/10, wooden tripod stands with volute feet, ebony veneer, rich floral decoration applied in so-called Boulle technique using brass and tin sheet in combination with tortoiseshell, so-called contre-partie, octagonal shelves with moulded rounded borders in matching Boulle decoration, below which are ornamentally carved and gold painted Ionic-Corinthian capitals with brass sheet decoration, each c. 114 cm high, tops with black-tinted glass shelves have been supplemented, restored condition. (DOC)
Subject to conservation legislation (ASI)

Superb workmanship

Prov.:
formerly from the South German art trade.

In the marquetry technique inspired by France and named after the creator of French court ébénisterie, André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732) — the so-called 'Boulle technique” — interlaced bands and acanthus arabesques in tin and brass were inlaid into tortoiseshell and ebony. A distinction is made between première partie and contre-partie: when the decorative motifs are executed in tortoiseshell, the work is referred to as première partie; when tortoiseshell serves as the background, it is called contre-partie.
Around 1700, probably under the aegis of Johann Reins (1645–1717), independent Viennese Boulle workshops emerged, modelled on the marquetry techniques then current in France, all the more so as such objects were in great demand at the time among the imperial court and the high nobility.
Among the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein are several works of this distinguished quality — including a writing cabinet, a cabinet cupboard, a longcase clock, and a comparable pair of torcheres of this type. Similar furniture and objects are also preserved at Schloss Rohrau.

Another comparable pair is held in the Princely Salm-Salm Collection at the moated castle of Anholt (Germany), demonstrably originating from the Viennese Boulle workshops. Closest in style to the present pair of torcheres, however, is a pair of candelabra in the Vienna Hofburg (Leopoldine Tract / Presidential Wing), which displays highly similar ornamentation.

Cf Lit.:
Adriaan W. Vliegenthart, Boulle Möbel der Fürsten Salm, 1995/2008
© 1995 Prince Carl Philipp zu Salm-Salm D-46414 Rhede 2008, 2nd edition