Style Louis XV / Ref.17912

LÉON MESSAGÉ - Pair of gilded bronze candlesticks

This pair of Louis XV style gilt-bronze candlesticks is a work of the carver and ornemanist Léon Messagé , active during the final quarter of the 19th century. Featuring a design of arabesques, these candlesticks correspond to 18th-century shapes, typical of the Rococo style. The profusion of decorative motifs, with foliage and curved lines, is also characteristic of the Rococo style, through the use of asymmetry and the abundance of ornamentation. Putti heads are set around the central pillar of the candlesticks. The fine chiseling is most detailed in these delicate faces.
Léon Messagé ’s signature, which is rarely found on his works, is present here, which proves how exceptional this pair of candlesticks is.
Léon Messagé was born on March 8th, 1842, in Sens, in the Yonne Department of France. When he was 20 years old, he lived in Paris at 23, Rue de Rivoli, and was referenced as a “stone carver.” Around 1885, he began collaborating with François Linke , an important cabinetmaker of the Belle Epoque, designing models for his furnishings and ornamental bronzes. They worked together until Messagé’s death at age 58 on May 16th, 1901. Thanks to this collaboration with François Linke, Messagé became quite successful in the final decades of the 19th century. He won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in 1889, and he designed all the large pieces of furniture at François Linke’s stand for the 1900 World’s Fair. Although he often designed pieces for Linke, Messagé always remained an independent craftsman who worked for himself. In his workshop at 40, Rue Sedaine, in the 11th Arrondissement in Paris, he designed and created his own models. The main principle of Messagé’s designs is a light Rococo style, an asymmetry typical of Rococo that Parisian artisans developed during the 1720’s. In this way, these candlesticks are characteristic of Léon Messagé ’s art in the 1890’s.