Ensemble de cinq flambeaux en argent par Bernhard Heinrich Wey(h)e, Augsbourg, 1743-1749. photo Sotheby's

A set of five German silver candlesticks, Bernhard Heinrich Wey(h)e, Augsburg, 1743-1749

la base ronde, le fût orné de masques retenant des guirlandes de grains d'orge sommés d'une frise de coquilles et d'écailles, le pied à décor de feuilles d'acanthe gravé d'armoiries d'alliance

circular, the stem cast, applied and engraved in French style with husk-hung masks below a shell and scale border, the foot with acanthus leaves and engraved accollé coats-of-arms

Haut. 26,7 cm, 4 815 g ; 154oz 16dwt, 10 1/2 in. Lot 116. ESTIMATION 60,000-80,000 EUR

PROVENANCE: A pair (1743-45 and 1747-49) sold Sothebys New York, December 16 and 17, 1976, lot 150
Albrecht Neuhaus Kunsthandel, 1994
Collection privée européenne

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: The arms are those of Christian Carl Reinhard Graf zu Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg in Heidesheim accollé with those of Catharina Polyxena Gräfin zu Solms-Rödelheim, whose marriage took place in Mettenheim on 27 November 1726

By all accounts Christian Carl was an enlightened ruler of the county of Leinigen; he protected the protestant refugees after their expulsion from Salzburg. Considered the principal count (graf) in the German empire, he refused elevation by the emperor to the rank of prince (fürst) . Part of his education took place in Paris (1713-16) which might account for his taste in these candelsticks which are clearly influenced by French models. After his death the family line died out, but through his daughters Marie-Louise (1729-1818) and Caroline Felizitas (1735-1803) he became ancestor to the German emperor Wilhelm I and to Queen Elizabeth II

Berhard Heinrich Wey(he) was an outstanding goldsmith of his generation reponsible for some of the most exuberant rococco silver of the 18th century, such as the renowned multiple-piece table centre made for the newly appointed prince bishop of Hildesheim in 1763, Friedrich Wilhelm von Westphalen. This is now in the Bavarian Nationalmuseum, Munich.

Sotheby's. Importante Orfèvrerie Européenne, Boîtes en Or et Objets de Vitrine. Paris | 18 avr. 2012, 10:30 AM www.sothebys.com