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Swan candelabrum (one of a pair)

Manufactory Meissen Manufactory German
Modeler Attributed to Johann Joachim Kändler German
swan, ca. 1745–50; gilt-bronze mount, ca. 1750
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 631
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Swan candelabrum (one of a pair)
  • Manufactory: Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present)
  • Modeler: Attributed to Johann Joachim Kändler (German, Fischbach 1706–1775 Meissen)
  • Date: swan, ca. 1745–50; gilt-bronze mount, ca. 1750
  • Culture: German, Meissen with French mount
  • Medium: Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mount
  • Dimensions: 23 × 16 1/2 × 10 1/4 in. (58.4 × 41.9 × 26 cm)
  • Classification: Ceramics-Porcelain
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.283.53
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
More Artwork
Swan candelabrum (one of a pair), Meissen Manufactory  German, Hard-paste porcelain with gilt-bronze mount, German, Meissen with French mount
Manufactory Meissen Manufactory
Modeler Attributed to Johann Joachim Kändler
swan, ca. 1745–50; gilt-bronze mount, ca. 1750
Pouring vessel (Kendi), Meissen Manufactory  German, Stoneware with raised decoration, German, Meissen
Manufactory Meissen Manufactory
ca. 1710–12
Ocarina, Max Freyer & Co., porcelain, German
Attributed to Max Freyer & Co.
19th century
Three-light candelabra (candélabre or girandole) (one of a pair), Johann Joachim Kändler  German, Hard-paste porcelain; gilt-bronze mounts, German, Meissen with French, Paris mounts
Modeler Model for bittern attributed to Johann Joachim Kändler
Manufactory Meissen Manufactory
ca. 1750
Marie Emilie Coignet de Courson (1716–1806) with a Dog, Jean Honoré Fragonard  French, Oil on canvas
Jean Honoré Fragonard
ca. 1769

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