Lot Essay
These urns and pedestals are the third element in an immensely distinguished group of furniture of the 1750s and early 1760s which comes from the Craven family. The group of three pieces indicates that the 4th Baron Craven (d.1764) was patronising one or more of the very best London cabinet-makers in this period. The best known of the three is the magnificent library desk that was sold from Combe Abbey in 1961 and which was most recently sold from the Hochschild Collection in 1978 (Connoisseur, April 1982). The desk follows a design in the Director and it was of it, among other pieces, that Christopher Gilbert wrote in his magisterial life of Thomas Chippendale that they were 'a select group which deserves a special mention because they are securely provenanced, of élite quality and closely related to a Director design', Although he cautions against the temptation to claim them as Chippendale's work he was not aware at that time of the remainder of the group. The second superb piece from this period with a Craven provenance is the carved mahogany canopied bed that was sold by Cornelia, Countess of Craven, in these Rooms, 11 April 1923, lot 99 and again, anonymously, Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 219. The design of that bed is very closely related to a signed drawing by the architect James Paine that survives at Nostell Priory. The rococo canopy of the Craven bed shares its corner overhangs and central entwined scrolls with the Paine design (see: G. Jackson-Stops, 'Pre-Adam Furniture Designs at Nostell Priory', Furniture History, 1974, pl. 13). The Paine design must predate his replacement in 1765 by Robert Adam as architect at Nostell. This places the Craven bed into the same period.
It is likely that identifying the side table that accompanied these pedestals would provide more stylistic information about a possible maker. When they were sold in 1964, the preceding lot (194) was:
An Adam Dining Room Side Table in mahogany, serpentine fronted and with curved sides, the shaped front carved with swags of fruiting vines centred by an urn and the sides with crossed wheat stalks, on tapering legs and with a drawer at each side
6ft. wide. 2ft. 9in. deep
The side table was not illustrated and its presence as the preceding lot before these tables only suggests that the two were associated at Hamstead Marshall, the Craven house in Buckinghamshire to which many pieces of furniture were moved when Combe Abbey was sold in the 1920s. They were not together in the photographs of the Great Dining Room at Combe Abbey that were used by Avray Tipping in English Homes. There is a George III mahogany wine cooler with fretwork stretcher in the photograph (illustrated above). This wine cooler may itself form part of the same commission as these urns and pedestals.
THE VASES
The Craven vases have fluted bodies in the style of an ancient sarcophagus which are accompanied by bacchic ram-heads and thyrsae finials. These represent the fashionable 'antique' style that was introduced by architects for dining-room sideboards and their associated silver and urns. The 18th Century sideboard was dominated by silver wine-fountains. Goldsmith's patterns for these sacred-urns, which often celebrated the wine-god Bacchus' festive triumphs, were published in Daniel Marot's Livre d'Orfevrerie of circa 1700. In the context of these urns, a hugely significant design was published by the young John Linnell in his A New Book of Ornaments useful for Silver-Smith's etc. of 1760 (H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, vol. II, 1980, p. 166, fig. 316). Linnell's design shows the serpentine scrolls of the Louis XV 'picturesque' manner that he had learned at the St. Martin's Lane Academy. However, amongst the deep scrollwork are visible ring-bearing lion-masks linked by swags and the whole is supported on an acanthus-wrapped tripod plinth that is recognisably of the same origin as that on the Craven urns. John Linnell's Louis XV-style design can be seen as idiosyncratic; only two years later Robert Adam's design for the sideboard niche at Kedleston, Derbyshire, incorporates a severely neo-classical use of silver wine-fountains embellished with lion-masks, reed-gadrooned bowls and flute-enriched necks with domed lids (J. Harris, Robert Adam and Kedleston, London, 1987, nos. 15-16). Perhaps ironically, the Kedleston silver wine-fountains are in fact of late 17th Century date and are inspired by the Marot designs referred to above.
One of the most distinctive features of these vases is the goat-masks that are bound into the vases by pelts suspended from rings. This combination replaces the conventional mask-and-ring support. The goats were clearly well-known as dining-room ornament. In the same year as John Linnell's silver pattern-book appeared, Thomas Chippendale engraved patterns for a sideboard-table with vine-wreathed goat and a pedestal as a goat-headed herm. They eventually appeared in the 1762 Director as pls. CLXXVI and CXLVIII respectively.
CRAVEN HOUSE
Craven House as it was was demolished to make way for the Olympic Theatre in 1805. It had been built for the 1st Lord Craven by William Winde in the 1680s. Lord Craven was a distinguished soldier who was immensely popular for his courage in staying in London during the plague of 1665. He was reputedly the lover of the Queen of Bohemia, for whom he built a house next to his own. It appears not to have been altered externally in the 18th Century.
It is likely that identifying the side table that accompanied these pedestals would provide more stylistic information about a possible maker. When they were sold in 1964, the preceding lot (194) was:
An Adam Dining Room Side Table in mahogany, serpentine fronted and with curved sides, the shaped front carved with swags of fruiting vines centred by an urn and the sides with crossed wheat stalks, on tapering legs and with a drawer at each side
6ft. wide. 2ft. 9in. deep
The side table was not illustrated and its presence as the preceding lot before these tables only suggests that the two were associated at Hamstead Marshall, the Craven house in Buckinghamshire to which many pieces of furniture were moved when Combe Abbey was sold in the 1920s. They were not together in the photographs of the Great Dining Room at Combe Abbey that were used by Avray Tipping in English Homes. There is a George III mahogany wine cooler with fretwork stretcher in the photograph (illustrated above). This wine cooler may itself form part of the same commission as these urns and pedestals.
THE VASES
The Craven vases have fluted bodies in the style of an ancient sarcophagus which are accompanied by bacchic ram-heads and thyrsae finials. These represent the fashionable 'antique' style that was introduced by architects for dining-room sideboards and their associated silver and urns. The 18th Century sideboard was dominated by silver wine-fountains. Goldsmith's patterns for these sacred-urns, which often celebrated the wine-god Bacchus' festive triumphs, were published in Daniel Marot's Livre d'Orfevrerie of circa 1700. In the context of these urns, a hugely significant design was published by the young John Linnell in his A New Book of Ornaments useful for Silver-Smith's etc. of 1760 (H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, vol. II, 1980, p. 166, fig. 316). Linnell's design shows the serpentine scrolls of the Louis XV 'picturesque' manner that he had learned at the St. Martin's Lane Academy. However, amongst the deep scrollwork are visible ring-bearing lion-masks linked by swags and the whole is supported on an acanthus-wrapped tripod plinth that is recognisably of the same origin as that on the Craven urns. John Linnell's Louis XV-style design can be seen as idiosyncratic; only two years later Robert Adam's design for the sideboard niche at Kedleston, Derbyshire, incorporates a severely neo-classical use of silver wine-fountains embellished with lion-masks, reed-gadrooned bowls and flute-enriched necks with domed lids (J. Harris, Robert Adam and Kedleston, London, 1987, nos. 15-16). Perhaps ironically, the Kedleston silver wine-fountains are in fact of late 17th Century date and are inspired by the Marot designs referred to above.
One of the most distinctive features of these vases is the goat-masks that are bound into the vases by pelts suspended from rings. This combination replaces the conventional mask-and-ring support. The goats were clearly well-known as dining-room ornament. In the same year as John Linnell's silver pattern-book appeared, Thomas Chippendale engraved patterns for a sideboard-table with vine-wreathed goat and a pedestal as a goat-headed herm. They eventually appeared in the 1762 Director as pls. CLXXVI and CXLVIII respectively.
CRAVEN HOUSE
Craven House as it was was demolished to make way for the Olympic Theatre in 1805. It had been built for the 1st Lord Craven by William Winde in the 1680s. Lord Craven was a distinguished soldier who was immensely popular for his courage in staying in London during the plague of 1665. He was reputedly the lover of the Queen of Bohemia, for whom he built a house next to his own. It appears not to have been altered externally in the 18th Century.