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Lot Essay
These Drawing Room 'torcheres' or 'gueridon' stands for vases and candelabra are designed in the George III 'antique' fashion promoted by the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam (d.1792), joint author of The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1773-1777.
Conceived as bacchic urn-capped altars evoking lyric poetry and 'sacrifices at love's altar', 'Venus' pearls accompany poetic 'Apollo' laurels which festoon the torcheres' palm-flowered 'candlestick' pillars. Their laureled and lambrequin-draped altars are raised on pearled and Grecian-scrolled tripod 'claws' that are guarded by caryatic 'Egyptian' sphynx, the eagle-winged and lion-bodied nymphs who protect the poets' paradisical Arcadia.
Their design evolves from Adam's 1767 drawing for the Earl of Coventry's 'Tripod and Vase for Candles' (E. Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London, 1963, pl. 134) and the vestiges of gothic design, as in the cusp below the lambrequin frieze, suggest an early transition into classicism. Recumbent sphynx-supports feature in a number of Adam's patterns for 'altar' torcheres, in particular those designed in 1777 for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn at 20 St. James's Square (a pair now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 105, N/5). Similar sphynxes with lambrequined saddle cloths and headresses feature on Adam's bridge at Compton Verney, Warwickshire (C. Hussey, English Country Houses, Mid Georgian 1760-1800, Woodbridge, 1955, p. 9, fig. 2). The lambrequined apron also features prominently in Adam's work and is rendered in identical form with its double-bellflower embellishment on a window seat in a room elevation for Syon House (no trace of this decoration survives) E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, New Haven and London, 2001, p. 83, fig. 123).
Many of London's foremost cabinet-makers worked in conjunction with Robert Adam. Prominent among these were Thomas Chippendale Junior, and Mayhew and Ince. While it is not possible to ascribe these torcheres to any one maker, however an examination of the carved details compares to Chippendale's documented work. It is interesting to compare the lively berried laurel clusters to those that appear on Chippendale's girandole mirror at Harewood House (C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, New York, 1978, vol. II, p. 180, figs. 321-322). Similar swags also embellish a pair of pier tables at Nostell Priory that Chippendale the Younger may have supplied and which correspond to an Adam design in the Soane Museum (C. Gilbert, op. cit., p. 275, fig. 500). A pair of tripartite torcheres at Osterley Park, Middlesex which feature similiar winged sphynx supports are based on a 1776 Adam design (the torcheres are illustrated in E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, p. 172, fig. 254). Chippendale is known to have worked at Osterley, producing a lacquer commode and secretaire for the State Bedroom and Etruscan Room the secretaire inviting speculation as to whether the firm may have supplied these torcheres.
While the history of these spectacular torcheres has yet to come to light, their quality and sophisticated design suggests these were part of a highly important commission and executed by one of London's foremost cabinet-makers.
Conceived as bacchic urn-capped altars evoking lyric poetry and 'sacrifices at love's altar', 'Venus' pearls accompany poetic 'Apollo' laurels which festoon the torcheres' palm-flowered 'candlestick' pillars. Their laureled and lambrequin-draped altars are raised on pearled and Grecian-scrolled tripod 'claws' that are guarded by caryatic 'Egyptian' sphynx, the eagle-winged and lion-bodied nymphs who protect the poets' paradisical Arcadia.
Their design evolves from Adam's 1767 drawing for the Earl of Coventry's 'Tripod and Vase for Candles' (E. Harris, The Furniture of Robert Adam, London, 1963, pl. 134) and the vestiges of gothic design, as in the cusp below the lambrequin frieze, suggest an early transition into classicism. Recumbent sphynx-supports feature in a number of Adam's patterns for 'altar' torcheres, in particular those designed in 1777 for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn at 20 St. James's Square (a pair now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 105, N/5). Similar sphynxes with lambrequined saddle cloths and headresses feature on Adam's bridge at Compton Verney, Warwickshire (C. Hussey, English Country Houses, Mid Georgian 1760-1800, Woodbridge, 1955, p. 9, fig. 2). The lambrequined apron also features prominently in Adam's work and is rendered in identical form with its double-bellflower embellishment on a window seat in a room elevation for Syon House (no trace of this decoration survives) E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, New Haven and London, 2001, p. 83, fig. 123).
Many of London's foremost cabinet-makers worked in conjunction with Robert Adam. Prominent among these were Thomas Chippendale Junior, and Mayhew and Ince. While it is not possible to ascribe these torcheres to any one maker, however an examination of the carved details compares to Chippendale's documented work. It is interesting to compare the lively berried laurel clusters to those that appear on Chippendale's girandole mirror at Harewood House (C. Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, New York, 1978, vol. II, p. 180, figs. 321-322). Similar swags also embellish a pair of pier tables at Nostell Priory that Chippendale the Younger may have supplied and which correspond to an Adam design in the Soane Museum (C. Gilbert, op. cit., p. 275, fig. 500). A pair of tripartite torcheres at Osterley Park, Middlesex which feature similiar winged sphynx supports are based on a 1776 Adam design (the torcheres are illustrated in E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam, p. 172, fig. 254). Chippendale is known to have worked at Osterley, producing a lacquer commode and secretaire for the State Bedroom and Etruscan Room the secretaire inviting speculation as to whether the firm may have supplied these torcheres.
While the history of these spectacular torcheres has yet to come to light, their quality and sophisticated design suggests these were part of a highly important commission and executed by one of London's foremost cabinet-makers.