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Lot Essay
The Ionic-scrolled brackets, with tapering urn-capped pillars festooned with stately lambrequins, are designed in the Louis Quatorze Roman fashion popularised by the goldsmiths patterns issued in the late 17th century by the Paris-trained architect Daniel Marot (d.1752) in his Nouveaux Livre d'Orfevrerie. In particular they relate to a suite of tall golden gueridon candlestands, enriched with tassled lambrequins supplied in the late 1690s for William III's Hampton Court Palace by the Huguenot craftsman Jean Pelletier (T. Murdoch, 'Jean, Rene and Thomas Pelletier, Part I', Burlington Magazine, November 1997, p. 733, fig. 3).
These wall sconces match the pair that appears a 1903 photograph of the Chapel Room at Bramshill, Hampshire (reproduced in H. A. Tipping, English Homes, period III, 1927, p. 299, figs. 37-378). Described as 'hanging lights attributed to Daniel Marot', they featured in C. Hussey's article entitled 'Mirrors and Georgian Furniture at Bramshill' published in Country Life, 2 June 1923 (p. 799, fig. 1). The bracket finials of orbs capped by birds can be related to another of Marot's patterns for an eagle-capped barometer. The Bramshill sconces may have been commissioned by Sir John Cope, 5th Baronet (d.1721) along with another similar pair bearing the crest of the Earl of Radnor (illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1924, vol. III, p. 61, fig. 11). The Bramshill wall sconces descended in the Cope family and were subsequently gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Judge Irwin Untermyer in 1964 where they are now on view. They are illustrated in Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture with some furniture of other countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Norwich, 1958, pl. 155, fig. 187 and were exhibited in The Age of Walnut, London, 1932. Another pair of this model, formerly with Hotspur and possibly made en suite with the other Bramshill pair, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 7 April 2004, lot 185. A further pair of similar character is in the collections at Temple Newsam House, Leeds (illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978, vol. II, no. 308).
These sconces may have been part of the refurbishment at Bramshill, Hampshire, taken on by Captain Denzil Cope following his inheritance of the ancient family estate in 1892.
These wall sconces match the pair that appears a 1903 photograph of the Chapel Room at Bramshill, Hampshire (reproduced in H. A. Tipping, English Homes, period III, 1927, p. 299, figs. 37-378). Described as 'hanging lights attributed to Daniel Marot', they featured in C. Hussey's article entitled 'Mirrors and Georgian Furniture at Bramshill' published in Country Life, 2 June 1923 (p. 799, fig. 1). The bracket finials of orbs capped by birds can be related to another of Marot's patterns for an eagle-capped barometer. The Bramshill sconces may have been commissioned by Sir John Cope, 5th Baronet (d.1721) along with another similar pair bearing the crest of the Earl of Radnor (illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1924, vol. III, p. 61, fig. 11). The Bramshill wall sconces descended in the Cope family and were subsequently gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Judge Irwin Untermyer in 1964 where they are now on view. They are illustrated in Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture with some furniture of other countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Norwich, 1958, pl. 155, fig. 187 and were exhibited in The Age of Walnut, London, 1932. Another pair of this model, formerly with Hotspur and possibly made en suite with the other Bramshill pair, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's New York, 7 April 2004, lot 185. A further pair of similar character is in the collections at Temple Newsam House, Leeds (illustrated in C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978, vol. II, no. 308).
These sconces may have been part of the refurbishment at Bramshill, Hampshire, taken on by Captain Denzil Cope following his inheritance of the ancient family estate in 1892.