Georges Emile Henri Servant Pair of Neo-Greek...

Georges Emile Henri Servant Pair of Neo-Greek candelabra attributed to G. Servant France Circa 1870 Patinated and gilded bronze Height: 93 cm; Width: 43 cm Pair of neo-Greek candelabra in patinated and gilded bronze with ten arms of light, topped by a heron with outstretched wings. They are adorned with numerous Greek-style motifs such as pine cones, palmettes and water leaves. They rest on a small triangular structure featuring a theatrical mask and a tripod base with lion paws. Biography Georges Emile Henri Servant (1828-c. 1890), succeeded his father in 1855 at the head of a foundry on rue Vieille-du-Temple in Paris. He specialized not only in neo-Egyptian clocks, which had been very popular in France since the 1860s, but also in Greek-style decorative objects. Already highly acclaimed by the public and critics for his high-quality bronzes at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855, and again in London in 1862, G. Servant was already exporting up to 40% of his production, mainly to the United States. His clocks were sold with great success by Louis C. Tiffany Inc. and Hamann & Roche in New York. His neo-Greek and Egyptian works finally earned him a gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 (Les Merveilles de l'Exposition Universelle de 1867, t. II, p° 165 & 167), and in 1874 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. At the 1878 Exposition Universelle, Servant, who was then a member of the Jury for the bronze art class, nevertheless exhibited bronze vases and small pieces of furniture, which once again met with general admiration. He finally retired shortly before the 1889 Universal Exhibition.