The present candlesticks are similar to a set of four of 1774 designed for Boulton & Fothergill by the architect James Wyatt (two are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; two were sold by the museum at Christie's, New York, October 21, 1993, lot 508). Boulton engaged a number of architects, including Wyatt, to provide designs for silver objects to be made at the Soho Manufactury, which was developing a line of high quality wares to appeal to a more fashionable and refined clientele. With the production of such objects, Boulton & Fothergill sought to remove "the prejudice that Birmingham hath so justly established against itself" (Boulton & Fothergill, letter, 1768, as quoted in Frances Fergusson, "Wyatt Silver," Burlington Magazine, December 1974).

One of the Wyatt candlesticks and one candlestick identical to the present pair are illustrated in Robert Rowe, Adam Silver, 1965, figs. 51A and 51B, and in Eric Delieb and Michael Roberts, Matthew Boulton: Master Silversmith, 1971, p. 88 overleaf.


See illustration