A pair of Dresden silver candlesticks made for Prince Elector Friedrich Christian of Saxony

A pair of Dresden silver candlesticks made for Prince Elector Friedrich Christian of Saxony

Round, moulded bases supporting baluster-form shafts and cylindrical nozzles. Engraved below with the "FC" monogram beneath electoral crown and inventory nos. 26 and 28. H 15.3 cm, weight 540 g.
Marks of Christian Heinrich Ingermann, 1763.

Frederick Christian was the third son of Frederick Augustus II and succeeded his father on the throne of the Saxon Electors on 5 October 1763 for just 74 days before he died of smallpox on 17 December at the age of just 41. His wife exercised the guardianship of the regency together with his brother Franz Xaver until his eldest son, Friedrich Christian III, came of age.

This pair of candlesticks can also be found in the Silver Chamber inventory of 1789: pages 822 and 823 list "Fifty round candlesticks, marked with FC", including the numbers 26 and 28, which are those offered here, with their weights in mark and lot. On the opposite page of the inventory, under "Disposal", it is noted that numbers 22 - 49 were sold in 1816 "by the highest order".

Provenance

Dutch private collection.

Literature

For more on Ingermann, see also Weinhold, Dresdner Hofilber des 18. Jahrhunderts, Kulturstiftung der Länder, Patrimonia 74, Leipzig 1994, p. 32, and, on the maker's mark, p. 50.