A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU AND WHITE MARBLE PERFUME BURNERS

CIRCA 1772, BY MATTHEW BOULTON

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU AND WHITE MARBLE PERFUME BURNERS
Circa 1772, by Matthew Boulton
Each with domed pierced foliate-cast lid with a pinecone finial above an urn body draped with laurel swags hung from lyres and rams' heads, on spreading socle and cylindrical base mounted with swags and bucrania, on a circular stepped plinth with floral guilloche edge
12in. (30.5cm.) high (2)

Literature

N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, 1974, fig. 117

Lot Essay

Designed in the French 'antique' style in the form of krater shaped 'sacred urns' on drum-shaped altar plinths with double stepped bases, these ormolu-mounted vases were used as 'essence pots'. A more simplified version of this type is illustrated in Messrs. Boulton and Fothergill's Pattern Books dating from around 1770, (see N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, 1974, fig. 161 (f)). Described as 'Lyre essence vase, white marble,' the pattern featured in the Company's 1782 stock list. Very similar bluejohn vases are illustrated in Goodison, op. cit, fig. 118. Another pair from the collection of Mrs. Robert Tritton, Godmersham Park, Kent, was sold at Christie's, 6 June 1983, lot 97, and another almost identical pair was sold in these Rooms, 17 October 1992, lot 160.