19TH CENTURY, AFTER A MODEL BY MATTHEW BOULTON

The sale of Messrs. Boulton and Fothergill's Manufactory, at Messrs. Christie and Ansell's on April 11-13, 1771, included a dozen vases described as being in 'the antique taste radix amethysti [bluejohn] and or moulu, lined with silver and perferated for essence, supported by four sphinxes upon an ornamented base of ebony'. A pair of bluejohn vases of this model were supplied to George III, in 1771, by Boulton and are in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, p. 163 and pl. 94). The present lot belongs to a group of perfume-burners which are related to the sphinx vases in form, although they are without the sphinx supports and the lower plinth. They have white marble bodies, with spreading pierced foliate covers, some bear the same lion-mask as the sphinx vases, and some like the above lot have a maiden-mask. They may relate to those in the Boulton and Fothergill sale of 20 May 1778, lots 6, 12, 24, 34 and 35, as 'One pair of statuary marble vases on pedestals, mounted in or moulu and perforated for essences'. Several variations on this model have been sold at auction in the last thirty years. A pair belonging to Lord Wharton, was sold in these Rooms, twice, 19 March, 1970, lot 21 and again anonymously, 6 July 1972, lot 5, when the vases were attributed to Matthew Boulton. Another pair was sold by Mrs. Raymond Gibbs, in these Rooms, 12 March 1981, lot 2. A further pair, without covers and with the same mask as above, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's Monaco, 23-24 June 1985, lot 913.