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Lot Essay
Sir William Chambers illustrated the design for the candlesticks in 1791 in the third edition of his Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture. The design is in an additional plate illustrating 'ornamental utensils, designed for the Earl of Charlemont, for Lord Melbourne, and for some decorations for my own house'. A drawing by Chambers's draughtsman John Yenn survives in the Victoria and Albert Museum (M.48, E. 5029-1910).
The closest parallel to these candlesticks is a pair at Blenheim Palace that have the same flower-form nozzles and drip-pan. Sir Nicholas Goodison has examined the Blenheim Palace candlesticks and does not believe them to be by Matthew Boulton, on the basis of different constructional style and quality. Goodison tentatively suggests that the Blenheim Palace pair are by Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, whom Chambers seems to have regarded as his preferred metal-worker until his death in 1767 (N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', Furniture History, 1990, p. 75).
The closest parallel to these candlesticks is a pair at Blenheim Palace that have the same flower-form nozzles and drip-pan. Sir Nicholas Goodison has examined the Blenheim Palace candlesticks and does not believe them to be by Matthew Boulton, on the basis of different constructional style and quality. Goodison tentatively suggests that the Blenheim Palace pair are by Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, whom Chambers seems to have regarded as his preferred metal-worker until his death in 1767 (N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', Furniture History, 1990, p. 75).