Pair of Carved Wood Eagle Candlesticks, Brass and Glass Details, Stamped Houy Pouiga, circa 1970

Each eagle of this exceptional pair stands compact and alert on its brass base, the head turned with the characteristic pride of the raptor, the eyes — set in glass — catching and holding the light with a lifelike intensity that carving alone could never achieve. The combination of materials is inspired: solid carved wood for the body, warm with the grain and texture of well-worked timber; polished brass for the beak, hard and precise; glass for the eyes, luminous and alive. At eighteen and a half centimetres tall, these are small objects of great concentrated presence, each bird a study in the controlled virtuosity of the woodcarver’s art.

The stamp “Houy Pouiga” identifies these pieces as the work of a signed craftsman — a mark of individual pride and of the artisanal culture that sustained provincial French wood sculpture well into the twentieth century. The tradition of carved wood animalier sculpture in France reaches back to the great woodcarving workshops of the Alpine and Pyrenean regions, where generations of craftsmen maintained a mastery of figural and zoomorphic carving in parallel with the more celebrated Parisian bronze tradition. The decision to combine carved wood with brass and glass fittings reflects a sophisticated understanding of materials and effect — the work of a maker who thought not only as a craftsman but as a sculptor.

Conceived with the versatility that characterises the finest decorative objects, these eagles can serve as candlesticks — the candle cup formed by the upturned beak — or be mounted as small table lamps, their modest scale making them ideal for a mantelpiece, a writing desk or a pair of bedside tables. As a signed pair in excellent condition, they represent a category of French artisanal craft that is both undervalued by the market and deeply cherished by collectors who recognise the quality of conception and execution that underpins them.