A PAIR OF GEORGE II WALNUT TORCHERES

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE II WALNUT TORCHERES
MID-18TH CENTURY

Each circular top with Vitruvian scroll edge above an incurved foliate-carved neck and square tapering shaft headed by shells and husks and with pendant laurel to the angles, on downscrolled foliate-carved legs
49½in. (126cm.) high, 13in. (33cm.) diameter of top (2)

Provenance

The Earls of Dudley, Dudley Castle, Staffordshire
With M. Harris & Sons, London
William Goadby Loew, The Palatial Georgian Mansion, New York, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, 26-28 April 1956, lot 525
Sold in these Rooms, 14 October 1989, lot 62

Literature

M. Harris & Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Works of Decorative Art, n.d, part 1, p.126 (in situ)

Lot Essay

A pair of torcheres of this model belonging to Archibald Stirling of Keir, Keir House, Scotland was sold by Christie's, 22-23 May 1995, lot 134. Another pair but with rectangular tray-tops carved with Greek key was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 1962 and were formerly at Ashburnham Place, Sussex, illustrated in C. Hussey, 'Ashburnham Place', Country Life, 23 April 1953, p.1247 and Partridge, Lewis & Simmons, The Furniture of Thomas Chippendale, n.d, pl.V).

The truss-supported 'herm' pedestals, with Venus shell badges festooned with laurels suspended from the acanthus-wrapped capitals, are designed in the George III 'antique' manner of the 1760's and relate to patterns for 'Therms' and 'Candle Stands' published in Messrs. Ince & Mayhew's Universal Systems of Household Furniture, 1762 (pls. VIII and LXVII-LXIX).