Large Pair of Five-Light Wrought Iron Gothic Style Wall Sconces with Coat of Arms, French Work, Circa 1940

This important and imposing pair of five-light wrought iron wall sconces in the Gothic style is a magnificent example of the tradition of decorative ironwork inspired by the great ecclesiastical and manorial architecture of medieval France. Produced circa 1940, each sconce presents an ambitious armature of forged iron with five candle arms radiating from a central boss bearing a heraldic coat of arms, the whole executed in the Gothic Revival idiom with a rigour and authority that speak to the mastery of French ironwork in the mid-twentieth century. The dark, dense quality of the forged iron and the medieval iconography of the shield and armorial device create objects of great dramatic presence.

The Gothic Revival style in French decorative arts drew inspiration from the medieval cathedral and the noble château, recalling the great ironwork of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries when French smiths produced some of the most extraordinary decorative metal objects in European history. The tradition was revived with great enthusiasm in the nineteenth century — particularly under the influence of the architectural theorist Viollet-le-Duc — and continued to inspire craftsmen well into the twentieth century. Wall sconces incorporating heraldic devices were associated particularly with the aristocratic and military tradition, lending any interior a note of historical grandeur and genealogical prestige.

This pair of wall sconces would make an outstanding decorative statement in any setting suited to their monumental scale — a grand entrance hall, a library, a dining room, or a château interior. Their combination of Gothic architectural vocabulary and heraldic iconography would equally suit a historic restoration or a bold contemporary interior seeking to invoke the drama of the medieval past. An exceptional pair of French ironwork combining craftsmanship of the highest order with historical and heraldic significance.