New home for ‘missing’ candelabra which once lit up Kilmory Castle
A pair of candlesticks from a Parisien palace, which spent part of their life in Kilmory Castle which later became Argyll and Bute Council’s headquarters, have sold at auction for £124,000 after being considered ‘missing’ for nearly 170 years.
The metre-high ormolu and hardstone-mounted candelabra, which were saved from French revolutionaries in the 19th century, sold on the telephone at prestigious saleroom Woolley and Wallis, in Salisbury, last week.
The candlesticks were originally commissioned by Ferdinand-Philippe duc d’Orléans, the oldest son of King Louis Philippe, in 1839, as part of a surtout de table – an elaborate centrepiece – for the formal dining table in the Palais de Tuileries in Paris.
The candelabra remained in the palace until the revolution in 1848 when a mob broke in and the candelabra, and many other valuables, were saved and taken to the Louvre for safe-keeping.
Five years later, they were auctioned off by the Duke’s family and were acquired by Sir James Watts of Abney Hall in Manchester in 1853.
That was the last time that their definite whereabouts were known, and they were considered ‘missing’ as part of a private collection for almost 170 years.
Kilmory Castle in Lochgilphead became their temporary home after they were passed down from Sir James to his grand-daughter, Lady Eleanor CampbellOrde, then to her son, the late Sir John CampbellOrde, whose family consigned them to auction.
Kilmory Castle or Kilmory House was the home of the Campbell-Ordes for many years until 1938. It then had several owners and uses until it was bought by the council in 1974.
Collection
One of a number of lots consigned from the collection of Sir John Alexander Campbell-Orde, 6th Baronet, the candelabra were sold as part of the Furniture, Works of Art and Clocks auction at Woolley and Wallis last Wednesday, January 8.
Prior to the auction, there were hopes that the candelabra could be sold for about £75,000, the price achieved in New York three years ago for a similar pair.
‘It is very difficult to put a price on provenance,’ said Mark Yuan-Richards, Works of Art specialist at Woolley and Wallis, ‘and although we hoped that the candelabra would achieve well over their estimate there are no guarantees at auction. Fortunately, we had a lot of interest from bidders within the UK, Continental Europe and the USA, and they eventually sold to a telephone bidder in New York.’
Mr Yuan-Richards added: ‘The history of these candelabra is quite extraordinary. To be given the chance to market something that was made for a royal palace and had been considered lost for over a century and a half is a privilege that doesn’t come along very often.
‘The duc d’Orléans himself never knew the fate of his surtout de table, as he tragically died in a carriage accident just three years after they were delivered to the palace. His widow remained there until the 1848 revolution, but France at that time was not a safe place for royalty.’
A group of these candelabra were made for the Palais de Tuileries in Paris in 1839, from a commission by Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d’Orléans. A pair was sold in Christie’s, New York, in 2017 for £75,000, but the whereabouts of the others was at that time unknown.
‘Somewhere there may still be another 10 similar candelabra in private collections around the world,’ added Mr Yuan-Richards.