Four Wall Lights

Louis XV's eldest daughter Louise-Elizabeth brought these four wall lights, each stamped with an inventory number, from France to Italy for her summer palace. She and her husband Don Philippe were made Duke and Duchess of Parma in 1748. A year later, when they took possession of the city's royal residences, they found that both the winter residence in town, the Casa Reale, and the summer residence in the country, the Palazzo di Colorno, had been stripped of their furnishings. Louise-Elizabeth made three trips to Versailles, obtaining money and gifts from her father to furnish the new palace. She returned to Italy with more than fourteen wagon-loads of goods commissioned from French craftsmen. Composed of stems of laurel leaves entwined with roses and a central drip pan in the shape of a sunflower, the elaborate wall lights were probably made by one of the finest bronze casters of the mid-1700s, Jacques Caffieri.