Pair of Gilded Wheat Sheaf Wall Sconces in the Taste of Chanel, French Work, circa 1970

These tall gilded wall sconces take the wheat sheaf as their central motif, the ripening ears and curved stalks arranged in a naturalistic bouquet that rises to 59 cm and catches the light with warm, golden brilliance. Each applique is constructed with evident care: the individual grains and husks of the wheat are rendered with botanical precision, while the gilded finish applied over metal gives the whole an opulent, almost ceremonial quality. Dating from circa 1970, they are executed in the decorative taste associated above all with Coco Chanel, whose Parisian apartment on the rue Cambon elevated the wheat sheaf to an iconic motif of French luxury interior decoration.

Gabrielle Chanel's private apartment at 31 rue Cambon, Paris — preserved to this day much as she arranged it — is one of the great monuments of 20th-century interior design. Filled with Coromandel lacquer screens, Venetian mirrors, crystal, and an abundance of gilded objects, it established an aesthetic vocabulary of restrained luxury and natural-world symbolism that proved enormously influential. The wheat sheaf, symbol of abundance and harvest, was among Chanel's favoured motifs, realised in gilt bronze by her preferred metalwork collaborator Robert Goossens, whose Maison Goossens produced iconic torchères, candelabra, and decorative pieces for Chanel over several decades. In the Paris of the late 1960s and 1970s, the Chanel taste in decoration — gilded wheat, warm patinas, natural forms elevated to luxury — was widely emulated by decorators and manufacturers catering to a clientele for whom Chanel represented the pinnacle of French elegance.

This pair is in fine condition with the gilded finish well preserved. Their imposing height makes them striking features on the walls of a salon, entrance hall, or dining room. As evocative examples of the Chanel aesthetic in its heyday, they will appeal equally to collectors of French decorative arts and to those who seek to recreate a distinctive and celebrated chapter of Parisian interior style.