Pair of Neoclassical Silvered Bronze Wall Sconces with Ribbons and Hunting Horns, Maison Baguès, French, circa 1960

This distinguished pair of wall sconces by Maison Baguès deploys the vocabulary of French neoclassicism with the authority one expects from one of Paris’s most celebrated houses of decorative bronzes. Cast in bronze and finished in silver, each sconce rises to a generous height of 46.5 centimetres — giving it a slender, vertical presence on the wall that is entirely appropriate to the formal interiors for which such pieces were made. The decorative programme combines two of the great motifs of the Louis XVI pastoral idiom: the flowing ribbon, symbol of elegance and refinement, and the hunting horn, emblem of the noble chase. Together they compose a cartouche of real sculptural quality, the surface modelling crisp and the silvered finish lending the piece a luminous, slightly cool distinction that would have read beautifully by candlelight.

Maison Baguès was founded in Paris in the nineteenth century and became, over the course of the following hundred years, one of the most prestigious suppliers of decorative bronzes and lighting to the grandest interiors in France and beyond. Working in the tradition of the great bronze foundries of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, the firm produced chandeliers, sconces, lanterns, and ornamental bronzes of exceptional quality, often in collaboration with the leading decorating houses and architects of the day. Their pieces are characterised by a meticulous attention to casting and finishing, and by a consistent fidelity to the classical French decorative tradition. A signed Baguès piece carries with it the weight of that long excellence.

The motif of the hunting horn in French decorative arts belongs to a specific cultural moment: the late eighteenth century, when the aristocratic culture of the hunt was at its apogee and its imagery saturated every medium from porcelain to architectural ornament. The cor de chasse, suspended from a knotted ribbon, appeared on Sèvres porcelain, on carved boiseries, on silk fabrics, and on the finest bronzes of the Louis XVI period. It was a motif that simultaneously evoked the pleasures of the noble life and the studied elegance of those who could afford them. Its revival in mid-twentieth century bronzes was not pastiche but continuation — a conscious affiliation with a tradition of beauty that had proved its staying power across two centuries.

In fine condition with the silvered finish well preserved. As a pair, these sconces offer the symmetrical counterpoint essential to formal wall compositions. They would be magnificent flanking a mirror, a console, or a work of art in an entrance hall or salon of appropriate scale. Height: 46.5 cm. Width: 27 cm. Depth: 8 cm.