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Lot Essay
The sideboard vases, of bacchic wine-krater form with acorn-like thyrsic finials, are designed in the George III antique fashion popular around 1800. Their bowls are wreathed by reeds sacred to Pan, and their neck bands are similarly decorated with Egyptian reeded ribbons. They are lead-lined for water and fitted with brass taps in their plinths. Their pedestals are enriched with antique-fluted cornices and Grecian stepped plinths, while their commode doors are parquetried with medallion-centred tablets of fine marble-figured mahogany banded by Grecian-black fillets.
A pattern for a Roman-medallioned pedestal with reeded vase featured in the Strand cabinet-maker Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775 (pl. 34 fig.129). The present pedestal pattern corresponds to one illustrated in Gillows of London and Lancaster's Estimate Sketch Book in 1788 and 1792 (L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 190). The same pattern of pedestal appeared on a pair, with closely related vases, sold Christie's, London, 11 December 1986, lot 85.
A pattern for a Roman-medallioned pedestal with reeded vase featured in the Strand cabinet-maker Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775 (pl. 34 fig.129). The present pedestal pattern corresponds to one illustrated in Gillows of London and Lancaster's Estimate Sketch Book in 1788 and 1792 (L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 190). The same pattern of pedestal appeared on a pair, with closely related vases, sold Christie's, London, 11 December 1986, lot 85.