Lot Essay
Thomas Messenger & Sons of Birmingham, leading 'Manufacturers of Chandeliers, Tripods and Lamps of every description in bronze and or-molu' opened their London showrooms in the mid-1820s (see C. Gilbert, The Fashionable Fire Place, 1660-1840, Leeds, 1985, p. 140, fig. 5). The 'Abbott' stamp may be that of Joseph Abbott, listed as a Birmingham 'brass castor'.
The 'Bernini triton' candelabra are conceived in the 19th Century French 'picturesque' manner. Their tripod pedestals, encrusted with marine creatures or fruits-of-the-sea, display Neptune's conch-bearing tritons celebrating the element of Water. These chimerical mermen, the water deity's triumphal attendants perched on their rocky outcrops, derive from a celebrated fountain-model attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (d. 1680). The Bernini model (now in the Torlonia Collection and illustrated in C. L. Visconti, I Monumenti del Museo Torlonia, Rome, 1885, no. 193) was popularised in the 18th Century, when it was in the possession of Sir William Chambers. Chambers, George III's Rome-trained 'architect' considered it a masterpiece by Michelangelo and in the 1760s lent it to Matthew Boulton, the Birmingham ormolu manufacturer, for copying as a candlestick. Boulton had a pair made to accompany the original model, and listed in Boulton and Fothergill's sale, Messrs. Christie and Ansell, 13 April 1771, lot 28, is 'A tryton in dark bronz, holding branches for two candles in or moulu, on a bassment of the same neatly ornamentd'.
Tritons 'from Michel Angelo' were also manufactured in jasperware by Josiah Wedgwood, and featured in the 1773 catalogue, issued by Wedgwood and Bentley.
A pair of candelabra of this pattern is illustrated in the Saloon at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland (see M. Girouard, 'Birr Castle', Country Life, 11 March 1965, fig. 4). A further pair was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 15 April 1999, lot 13. A pair of patinated bronze candlesticks, conforming closely to Boulton and Fothergill's design are to be sold at Christie's New York, 21 October, 1999, lot 138.
The 'Bernini triton' candelabra are conceived in the 19th Century French 'picturesque' manner. Their tripod pedestals, encrusted with marine creatures or fruits-of-the-sea, display Neptune's conch-bearing tritons celebrating the element of Water. These chimerical mermen, the water deity's triumphal attendants perched on their rocky outcrops, derive from a celebrated fountain-model attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (d. 1680). The Bernini model (now in the Torlonia Collection and illustrated in C. L. Visconti, I Monumenti del Museo Torlonia, Rome, 1885, no. 193) was popularised in the 18th Century, when it was in the possession of Sir William Chambers. Chambers, George III's Rome-trained 'architect' considered it a masterpiece by Michelangelo and in the 1760s lent it to Matthew Boulton, the Birmingham ormolu manufacturer, for copying as a candlestick. Boulton had a pair made to accompany the original model, and listed in Boulton and Fothergill's sale, Messrs. Christie and Ansell, 13 April 1771, lot 28, is 'A tryton in dark bronz, holding branches for two candles in or moulu, on a bassment of the same neatly ornamentd'.
Tritons 'from Michel Angelo' were also manufactured in jasperware by Josiah Wedgwood, and featured in the 1773 catalogue, issued by Wedgwood and Bentley.
A pair of candelabra of this pattern is illustrated in the Saloon at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland (see M. Girouard, 'Birr Castle', Country Life, 11 March 1965, fig. 4). A further pair was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 15 April 1999, lot 13. A pair of patinated bronze candlesticks, conforming closely to Boulton and Fothergill's design are to be sold at Christie's New York, 21 October, 1999, lot 138.