SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY

Patterns for related 'antique' bronze candelabra with lion monopodia tripods were published in Henry Moses, A Collection of Antique Vases, Altars, Paterae, Tripods, Candelabra, Sarcophagi, London, 1814, plates 83-86. This fashion was popularised in the early 19th Century by bronze-founders, such as Benjamin Vulliamy (d.1821) and Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (d.1854), who earned the epithet 'Furniture man' to George, Prince of Wales and later King George IV (R. Smith, 'Vulliamy and the Kinnaird candelabra', Apollo, January 1997, pp.30-34). Messenger and Sons of Birmingham and London illustrated a related stand in their 1830's trade-card stating that they were 'Manufacturers of Chandeliers, Tripods and Lamps of every description in Bronze and Ormolu' (C. Gilbert and A. Wells-Cole, The Fashionable Fire Place, Temple Newsam, 1985, fig. 95). Such Roman Tripods were intended to support colza-oil vase candelabra.

Pairs of comparable torcheres were sold anonymously; Christie's, London, 9 July 1998, lot 4; Christie's, New York, 21 October 1999, lot 286 and Christie's, New York 31 March 2000, lot 109.