The two candelabra rest on a circular base and present a baluster stem with spiral movement opening out into four arms, one pointing upwards, with vegetal volutes, cartouches and sprays of leaves and flowers. Engraved on the base is a princely coat of arms with ermine mantling and lion rampant, formerly of the Sicilian Lanza di Trabia family. The same crest characterises one of the most important groups of 18th-century Neapolitan silverware, being found on an oval tureen complete with underplate and a lid surmounted by a cherub sitting on a dolphin, a glass cooler (formerly identified as a flower bowl) and a wine bucket owned by Prince Lanza di Trabia in Palermo. All bear the Naples mark for 1770 and the consular mark with initials that are hard to decipher (ANSC, MSC or AMSC). These three items were shown as the property of the Sicilian family in the 1959 exhibition of silverware at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, together with three copies produced in Palermo as companion pieces to supplement the Neapolitan originals.¹

The princely coat of arms with the lion and the marks “1770” and “ANSC” engraved on the candelabra are also to be found on other objects, listed by Alvar González-Palacios in 1999 on the occasion of the auction² at which they were bought from the Lanza di Trabia family by Francesco Federico Cerruti: namely a pair of trays for tureens and a rectangular platter.³ To these we can also add a pair of serving dishes, some more two-light and four- light candelabra, coolers and tureens that remained in the family’s possession until World War II.⁴ According to González-Palacios, the coat of arms with the ermine mantling and the lion did not belong to the Lanza di Trabia family, who owned the set, but rather to the Carmignani of Naples and Taranto, princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He draws a connection between the group including the pair of candelabra and another set of Neapolitan silverware again owned by the princes of Trabia but of still finer workmanship, comprising a pair of tureens with the consular mark of Nicola Alvino and an uncertain date, possibly 1751 or 1777,⁵ a coffee pot with a knob in the form of a Turk holding a twig from a coffee plant,⁶ and a pair of buckets engraved with coats of arms, one of the Carmignani family of Naples and Taranto, and the other of the Gerace of Sicily, who were also princes of the Holy Roman Empire.⁷

The items, which display worn hallmarks and coats of arms that are hard to decipher, were evidently grouped together before coming into the possession of the princes of Trabia, who still owned the set in Palermo in the post-war period.⁸ The mark “ANSC” is most probably that of Antonio Spasiano, consul in 1770, 1773, 1776 and 1779,⁹ whose punch is found on a number of items in private collections¹⁰ and on a silver-gilt travelling service with plate and bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, dated 1776 (inv. no. 75D- 1957).¹¹ All of this silverware is undeniably French in style with its swirling development and sophisticated decorative details of a naturalistic character. It should be recalled that the court of Charles of Bourbon was well-stocked with the work of great Parisian silversmiths, including a now lost toilette service by François-Thomas Germain for the sovereign’s marriage to Maria Amalia of Saxony in 1738. The same taste for spiral lines and lively naturalistic decoration with flowery garlands can be found in candelabra by Alexis III Loir of 1743-44 (Paris, Musée d’Arts Décoratifs)¹² and candlesticks produced by Germain nearly twenty years later (Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs)¹³ as well as the work of silversmiths like Claude Duvivier, where the twists and turns are accentuated out of all proportion.¹⁴

Clelia Arnaldi di Balme

¹ Milan 1959a, pp. 54-55, cat. 143-145, pls. CX- CXI. The tureen is also published in Catello, Catello 1973, p. 306, and the bucket and cooler in Mariacher 1965, pls. 69b, 80a. They are all in A. González-Palacios, “Brevi indagini a Napoli”, in Scritti di storia dell’arte 1988, pp. 370-371, and González-Palacios 2010, pls. XVIII-XIX.

² Sotheby’s, London, Fine Decorative Arts: Baroque to Neo-classicism, 8 June 1999, lot 102, pp. 92-93.

³ A. González-Palacios, “Brevi indagini a Napoli”, in Scritti di storia dell’arte 1988, p. 372, figs. 15-18; Sotheby’s, Geneva, 14 May 1990, lots 108-109.

⁴ A. González-Palacios, “Di argenti principeschi (1988)”, in González-Palacios 2010, p. 49.

⁵ Id., “Una zuppiera per un principe”, in González-Palacios 1984, vol. I, t. 2, pp. 256-257, figs. 584-587.

⁶ Id., “Meccanismo, ornato e addobbi alla corte di Napoli: 1734-1805”, in González-Palacios 1984, vol. I, t. 2, p. 224, figs. 512-513.

⁷ Id., “Di argenti principeschi (1988)”, in González-Palacios 2010, pp. 48-49.

⁸ Sotheby’s, London, Fine Decorative Arts: Baroque to Neo-classicism, 8 June 1999, lot 102, pp. 92-93.

⁹ Catello, Catello 1996.

¹⁰ Id. 1973, pp. 105, 433.

¹¹ Ibid., pp. 316-317; A. González-Palacios “Di argenti principeschi (1988)”, in González-Palacios 2010, p. 49.

¹² Mabille 1984, pp. 102-104.

¹³ PerrIn 1993, pp. 116, 157.

¹⁴ Mabille 1984, pp. 66-68.