Pair of large ormolu Empire style wall lights

The wall lights in this pair are crafted in the elegant Empire style, which dominated French decorative art during the very early nineteenth century and inspired much of the country’s art and design for the following hundred years.

Each wall light features an ornate ormolu backplate modelled as an oval gadrooned shell, below which is an engraved plate and a pierced anthemia finial. The backplate of each supports the main stem, which is modelled as a caryatid-type figure: an idealised, classicised female figure holds aloft the light branches, her torso springing from a curved foliate support. Each wall light features four scrolled and one straight light branch, each branch richly moulded with grasping acanthus leaves. The five light branches of each are joined with a series of scrolling rinceaux-like buttresses.