Doe and Hope

Description

The beautiful pair of gilded iron and brass three branch wall sconce candelabra, each in stunning original order cast with foliate decoration and iron mounting brackets, surviving from the last quarter of eighteenth century Italy and from the estate of the renowned late actor Sir Christopher Lee.

Remaining in very original overall condition considering the considerable age, the original gilding is beautifully aged and the patina is very well established with green verdegris showing through in parts. The bronze sconces are all present, and the original metal bracket hooks are present for wall mounting. There are two very small repairs to the collars to two stems. The overall patination is outstanding with no re-gilding processes having taken place.

When it was first introduced in France towards the end of the 17th century the torchiere mounted one candle only, and when the number was doubled or tripled the improvement was regarded almost as a revolution in the illumination of large rooms. Three sconce candelabra such as these were very much part of this revolution. This pair may well be Venetian.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English character actor, singer, and author. With a career spanning nearly 70 years, Lee was well known for portraying villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a sequence of Hammer Horror films. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014), and Count Dooku in the second and third films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002 & 2005).

This pair of magical candelabra could have almost come from Rivendell itself…a very fine pair, from a very fine actors estate.