A pair of two-branch wall lights, gilded copper alloy, the back plate in the form of a putto playing the pipes.

A pair of gilded copper alloy, two-branch wall lights, each with a backplate the upper part of which is in the form of a putto playing pipes (a double aulos), the candle arms scrolled, with foliate decoration and with nozzles shaped like foliage.

Bequeathed by John Jones

The wall-lights were bequeathed to the Museum by John Jones on his death in 1882. In the early part of the twentieth century, some scholars believed them to be the work of the master bronze sculptor Pierre Gouthière. In fact, although the lights appear similar, they do not form a pair as they differ markedly in quality and the way in which they were executed. The boy's torso on the wall-light V&A 975-1882 has been cast as a separate section, whereas V&A 975A-1882 is much heavier, the figure of the boy has been cast as a single piece and on the back it is stamped with the letters 'FF'. The decorative detail on the underside of the sconces also differs between the two wall lights. These differences suggest that one of the wall lights has provided the model for a later copy and the two were then sold as a pair. (A very similar pair produced in this fashion was sold in 2006 at Christie's New York.) There are numerous elements missing from the V&A examples, including the chains of beading which would have hung from the holes pierced in the acanthus leaves in front of the pipe-playing boys.

These wall lights were bequeathed to the Museum by the businessman and collector John Jones on his death in 1882. Early catalogues date both to the late eighteenth century, but differences in construction between them suggest that only one dates from the 1780s, while the other is a nineteenth-century copy intended to make up the pair. The back plate in the form of a boy playing a Greek flute (double aulos), and the scrolling acanthus leaves are neo-Classical in inspiration, and this style, inspired by archaeological finds in Italy and Greece, was still popular in late-Victorian England.

975-1882