Wall sconces

Twenty of these wall sconces were commissioned in 1779 from the Parisian sculptor and engraver Jean-Louis Prieur. They were intended for the Great Assembly Hall of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, which had been refurbished to modern taste by French architect Victor Louis at the request of Stanislaw-August Poniatowski, King of Poland. Due to the ups and downs of Polish history their ultimate fate remains uncertain, but in the nineteenth century they are known to have been in the collection of Prince Anatole Demidoff at the Wisniowiecki Palace in Poland. The Comte de Camondo bought eight of them from his decorator, M. Decour, to adorn the Hall and Upper Ground Floor gallery of his mansion.