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A pair of South German turned ivory and bone candlesticks, late 17th century. Photo Sotheby's
each with a circular foot surrounded by eight rings interspersed with florettes, the narrow banded stem punctuated with another eight ringed platform, two cage-form spheres centered by a ring of six upturned and six downturned flowers on stems, two similar rings of floral stems above, the lower with four downturned, the upper with six upturned, the candle socket rising from a circular platform surrounded by ten flat rings and circumscribed by a fence, the socket gradually flaring and decorated with shallow bands; the foot of each with two blue bordered inventory tags, one with "2633," the other with "44."; height 10 7/8 and 11 in., 27.6, 27.9 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot sold 104,500 USD
Provenance: Sotheby's, Collection of the Margraves of Baden, Baden-Baden, October 5-21, 1995, lot 309
An ivory beaker from the Danish Royal Kunstkammer at Rosenborg castle in Copenhagen bears a cover surmounted by a distinctive narrow finial, possibly associated, which is similar in design to the present candlesticks, incorporating a ring of horizontal pierced discs, and a spherical cage-form knop (Gundestrup 1991, p. 259, no. D194). A tour de force in a wooden case of similar design was published by Kunstkammer Georg Laue (Laue 2004, p. 72, no. 16). Similar forms can be seen in the 1719 catalogue of Nicolas de Serviere's turning cabinet (see Maurice 1985, p. 112, no. 123). The present pair are remarkable in that they take the form of the astonishingly thin, seemingly weightless turned ivory tours de force, but also maintain a practical function as candlesticks.
The 18th century inventory of the Kunstkammer of the Margravate Baden-Durlach in Basel lists the present candlesticks as: Allerhand Artificialia: 4.5. Zwei Lichtstöck von Bein Geißlinger Arbeit. The 1859 inventory of the Grand Duchy Baden ("Das inventar der sog. Kunstkammer") has the pair as numbers 345 and 346. Two paper labels bear numbers representing unidentified inventories of the Margraves of Baden: "2633" and "44." See Sotheby's, Die Sammlung der Markgrafen und Grosshersöge von Baden, Baden-Baden, October 5-21, 1995 for a detailed discussion of the collections and inventories.
Sotheby's. Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra - Volumes I-VI. New York | 18 Oct 2011 - www.sothebys.com
