Jacques Caffieri

Philippe and his son Jacques undoubtedly worked together in the Appartement du Dauphin at Versailles, and although much of their contribution has disappeared, the gilt-bronze decorations of the marble chimney-piece still remain.

His signature incised in gilt-bronze kept his name alive in the nineteenth century[3] and gained him an entry in Encyclopædia Britannica 1911, though the extreme Rococo style of which he was a consummate master laid his work open to disapproving commentary.

[4] Two monumental gilt-bronze chandeliers in the Wallace Collection, London,[5] bear his signature; one of them was a wedding present from Louis XV to Louise-Elisabeth of France in 1739; the other is signed and dated 1751.

The famous astronomical clock made by C.-S. Passement and Dauthiau for Louis XV, 1749–1753, is housed in a Rococo case signed by Caffieri.

Another clock, with a movement by Balthasar Martinot in an extreme Rococo style gilt-bronze case, belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch, at Boughton House[6] A pair of fire-dogs signed and dated 1752 is in the Cleveland Museum of Art[7] Two large gilt-bronze mirror-frames by Caffieri, to a design by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, were intended as a gift to the Sultan of Turkey; the price was an astonishing 24,982 livres.

[8] He made a great cross and six candlesticks for the high altar of Notre-Dame de Paris, which disappeared in the French Revolution, but similar work for Bayeux Cathedral still exists.