A pair of seven-light silver candelabra in the Louis XVI style by Maison Odiot. Each with a tapered shaft chased with trailing flowers and bordered with ribbon-tied laurel friezes, issuing two tiers of three curved candle arms and a single stiff candle arm with acanthus leaf decoration, beaded drip pans and leaf-cast beaded nozzles. The circular three-feet fluted bases applied with cast laurel garlands and chased with laurel foliage around the edges. Each piece is marked on the base of a foot, further stamped ‘ODIOT A PARIS’ and numbered 806.
Maison Odiot, known in English as ‘House of Odiot’ was developed in 1690 by Jean-Baptiste Gaspard Odiot who was an impressive silversmith and the grandfather to Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot. Jean-Baptiste-Claude was inspired by classical Egyptian and Greek motifs as shown in the Empire and Directoire styles. Charles Nicolas Odiot was the son of Jean-Baptiste-Claude and was also a very successful silversmith, inheriting the direction of his family. One of the most outstanding commissions accepted by Odiot was the Cradle of the King of Rome; a wooden, silver gilt and bronze cradle given as a gift from the city of Paris to Napoleon and Empress Marie-Louise for when their son was born. Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot and Pierre-Phillippe Thomire both contributed to the making of the Cradle of the King of Rome and today it is kept safely in the Louvre.
