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Lot Essay
These marble-topped pedestals are supported on Grecian-stepped and palm-wreathed plinths and their altar-drums are flanked by addorsed Egyptian priestess herms; while Medusa-head medallions incorporated in their sarcophagus strigil-fluting evoke ancient virtue. Beneath an echinous-moulded cornice, their friezes are flowered with alternate palms and acanthus; while palm-flowered and pearl-wreathed medallions are sunk in tablets above the veil-draped herms, whose shafts are enriched with acanthus-entwined thyrsic wands. Thyrsic clusters also terminate the richly beaded acanthus entwining the pedestals flutes.
The Wildenstein pedestals are of closely related design as the suite of eight supplied by Dominique Daguerre for George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV's use at Carlton House. In Daguerre's Estimate of circa 1794 he specified for the Great Drawing Room 'Eight pedestals carv'd and Gilt for the Candelabras'. On this evidence, the pedestals could well have been designed by Daguerre and may well have been constructed in England, perhaps by an émigré craftsman who had fled the Terror. This hypothesis would certainly concur with their construction in both lime and pine, but using considerable quantities of gilt-composition for the elaborate frieze and cornice. Although stylistically so close, and displaying the same coopered construction, the decorative motifs of the Wildenstein pedestals are almost entirely carved as opposed to being of gilt-composition. Perhaps, therefore, the Wildenstein pedestals were commissioned by Daguerre from Parisian sculpteurs and gilders for a French patron.
Following the demolition of Carlton House, four of the Royal pedestals were sent to Buckingham Palace and were eventually auctioned by Phillips. Two of these later passed into the collection of the marquis de Biron and were sold in Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 9-11 June 1914, lot 186. The remaining four were subsequently considered for re-use at Windsor Castle and feature in the celebrated series of interior watercolours from the Pictorial Inventory of Windsor Castle. Of these, the earliest by the workshop of Morel and Seddon is dated to 1826, when a pair was proposed for Room 213 whilst a further pair were placed in the adjoining room 214, all supporting their original candelabra by François Rémond. The complete set, eight candelabra, also supplied by Daguerre, remain in the Royal Collection. The pedestals and candelabra, as well as the Pictorial Inventory designs, are illustrated in H. Roberts, For The King's Pleasure The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's Apartments at Windsor Castle, London, 2001, figs. 252, 264, 265, 268, 270.
Interestingly, a highly finished design for this form of pedestal is in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Also close to the Royal Collection model, this shows the pedestals supporting a different model of satyr and satyress candelabra of a type that George, Prince of Wales is also known to have owned at Carlton House (H. Roberts, op.cit., p.110, fig.105). In view of the highly finished nature of the design, it is thought more likely to have been a selling design of Daguerre's, like the Sachsen-Teschen albums (see lot 75). This would reinforce the hypothesis that Daguerre offered or sold this type of pedestal to his Parisian clients as well.
The pedestals' architecture also relates to that of the bed commissioned by Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, later Emperor Paul 1, for her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna's apartment at Pavlovsk Palace, Russia following their visit to Paris in the early 1780s. The apartment, decorated under the direction of the executant architect Charles Cameron with assistance of the Parisian architects Richard de Lalonde and Jean-Demosthène Dugourc, displayed a golden bed that evoked the poet's concept of the couch of Venus. A 1780s design survives, which shows the bed in an apartment with its cove compartments recalling Rome's Temple of Venus, and its flowered wall-pilasters recalling Apollo's Temple at Palmyra. Cupids recline on the beds' sphinx-guarded headboard beside flower-baskets that are supported on Egyptian hermed pilasters. The bed as executed featured Cupids guarding the doves of Venus's aerial chariot and standing on fluted altar-drum pilasters at the foot of the bed of similar concept to the Wildenstein pair.
The Wildenstein pedestals are of closely related design as the suite of eight supplied by Dominique Daguerre for George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV's use at Carlton House. In Daguerre's Estimate of circa 1794 he specified for the Great Drawing Room 'Eight pedestals carv'd and Gilt for the Candelabras'. On this evidence, the pedestals could well have been designed by Daguerre and may well have been constructed in England, perhaps by an émigré craftsman who had fled the Terror. This hypothesis would certainly concur with their construction in both lime and pine, but using considerable quantities of gilt-composition for the elaborate frieze and cornice. Although stylistically so close, and displaying the same coopered construction, the decorative motifs of the Wildenstein pedestals are almost entirely carved as opposed to being of gilt-composition. Perhaps, therefore, the Wildenstein pedestals were commissioned by Daguerre from Parisian sculpteurs and gilders for a French patron.
Following the demolition of Carlton House, four of the Royal pedestals were sent to Buckingham Palace and were eventually auctioned by Phillips. Two of these later passed into the collection of the marquis de Biron and were sold in Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 9-11 June 1914, lot 186. The remaining four were subsequently considered for re-use at Windsor Castle and feature in the celebrated series of interior watercolours from the Pictorial Inventory of Windsor Castle. Of these, the earliest by the workshop of Morel and Seddon is dated to 1826, when a pair was proposed for Room 213 whilst a further pair were placed in the adjoining room 214, all supporting their original candelabra by François Rémond. The complete set, eight candelabra, also supplied by Daguerre, remain in the Royal Collection. The pedestals and candelabra, as well as the Pictorial Inventory designs, are illustrated in H. Roberts, For The King's Pleasure The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's Apartments at Windsor Castle, London, 2001, figs. 252, 264, 265, 268, 270.
Interestingly, a highly finished design for this form of pedestal is in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Also close to the Royal Collection model, this shows the pedestals supporting a different model of satyr and satyress candelabra of a type that George, Prince of Wales is also known to have owned at Carlton House (H. Roberts, op.cit., p.110, fig.105). In view of the highly finished nature of the design, it is thought more likely to have been a selling design of Daguerre's, like the Sachsen-Teschen albums (see lot 75). This would reinforce the hypothesis that Daguerre offered or sold this type of pedestal to his Parisian clients as well.
The pedestals' architecture also relates to that of the bed commissioned by Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich, later Emperor Paul 1, for her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna's apartment at Pavlovsk Palace, Russia following their visit to Paris in the early 1780s. The apartment, decorated under the direction of the executant architect Charles Cameron with assistance of the Parisian architects Richard de Lalonde and Jean-Demosthène Dugourc, displayed a golden bed that evoked the poet's concept of the couch of Venus. A 1780s design survives, which shows the bed in an apartment with its cove compartments recalling Rome's Temple of Venus, and its flowered wall-pilasters recalling Apollo's Temple at Palmyra. Cupids recline on the beds' sphinx-guarded headboard beside flower-baskets that are supported on Egyptian hermed pilasters. The bed as executed featured Cupids guarding the doves of Venus's aerial chariot and standing on fluted altar-drum pilasters at the foot of the bed of similar concept to the Wildenstein pair.