Gouthière's Candelabras

This third volume in the Frick’s Diptych series offers fresh insight into a pair of candelabra that represent the pinnacle of luxury and taste in the years prior to the French Revolution. Vignon tells the fascinating story of these objects that are made of two small white vases with extraordinary gilt—bronze mounts by Pierre Gouthière, the celebrated eighteenth—century French chaser and gilder. Vignon’s essay is paired with a text by De Waal in which he examines what it is to make, own, and...