A pair of silver-plated candlesticks by Jean Desprès, the French jeweller and silversmith whose work occupies a singular position between Art Deco precision and artisanal instinct. The design is immediately characteristic — fluted tubular shafts rising from hammered circular bases, the bowl-shaped receptacles also hand-hammered, and a curb chain collar wrapping the base of each shaft. 

The combination of the industrial fluting with the organic texture of the hammering is what makes Desprès objects feel unlike anything else of their period. Neither purely decorative nor purely functional — exactly where his best work sits.