candle stick VON LATT, female

In the spring of 1900, the sculptor Hans Latt (1859–1946) designed two table candlesticks with herms in the Neoclassical style. The two two-armed candelabras, featuring a female and male “ figure ,” originally formed a set with a table clock. Hans Latt worked in Rome from 1883 to 1885, and his artistic work was influenced by the sculptures and architecture of antiquity. In 1886, he returned to Berlin and devoted himself to architectural sculpture, relief art, and portraiture.
He created several model forms for the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. The female figure, “ figure ,” draped in a cloth, is depicted as a semi-nude and holds a mirror in her right hand. In ancient culture, the mirror was regarded as a reflection of the soul; the hand mirror of Venus is still known today, in stylized form, as a symbol of femininity. The male counterpart, with a cloth draped over his shoulder, carries the fasces in his left arm—a bundle of rods that, in ancient Rome, was carried before the ruler by the lictors as a symbol of office.
Neither of the figures, nor the heads attached to the sides of the candlestick base, are glazed, in order to better highlight the subtleties of the sculptural work. On either side of the figures are candlestick arms made of fluted brass, on which are mounted porcelain spouts shaped like flower calyxes, glazed, and adorned with a gold rim.