I thought that I would share these wonderful fusions of eastern and western decorative arts that almost certainly belonged to Madame de Pompadour who was Louis XV’s mistress and which will be auctioned next week
Treasures Sale
Sotheby’s London, 8 July 2015
A pair of gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese export porcelain cockerel candelabra, the porcelain Qianlong (1736-1795), the mounts Louis XV, with the crown c poinçon, circa 1745-49, attributed to Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), almost certainly acquired by Madame de Pompadour from Lazare–Duvaux on 4th August 1755 for l’Hôtel d’Évreux in Paris
each 63cm. high; 2ft. 1in
Estimate: £500,000 — 1,000,000
The Exceptional Sale – 2015
Christie’s London, King Street, Jul 09, 2015
Lot Number 0129
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION (lots 118-131)
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU AND GILT-COPPER-MOUNTED CHINESE BLANC DE CHINE THREE-BRANCH CANDELABRA
CIRCA 1750, THE PORCELAIN EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Each with a figure of a stork wearing a stylised necklace, standing before a tree trunk on a naturalistic base, mounted with twisting grape vine branches entwined around the trunk and terminating in foliate drip pans and nozzles, on a rocaille and foliate decorated base, restorations to the storks legs and the tree stumps
17 ¼ in. (44 cm.) high
Estimate 300,000 – 500,000 British pounds
Provenance Possibly supplied by the marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux, on 14 February 1752 to Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1764) and possibly the pair listed in the 1764 inventory following her death as no. 2312.
Possibly, M. l’Abbe Le Blanc, Historiographe des Batiments du Roi, sold, 14 February 1781, lot 128 and acquired by Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, or sold anonymously (actually the properties of La Reynière, Donjeu, the marquis de Chevigné), 10 February 1773, lot 66.
In the collection of Madame and Colonel Balsan in 1936, photographed in the ‘salle à manger’ of their Parisian hôtel overlooking the Champ-de-Mars.
Thence by descent to the end of the 1950’s.
Sold, Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11 December 1999, lot 88, where acquired by the present owner.
© Christie’s Images Limited 2015
Tim Forrest's E & A 
Gorgeous!