.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
'ELEGANT SIMPLICITY THE LEADING PRINCIPLE'
These elegant 'candle vases' by Matthew Boulton were made in his Soho workshop in the early 1770s. From the 1760s, the vogue in Great Britain for the 'antique taste' was encouraged in various forms by architects and designers such as James and Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers, and James 'Athenian' Stuart. On the advice of Lord Shelburne, Boulton purchased a copy of Adam's Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia in 1765. Adam and Boulton never met, but Adam's work must have had some effect in training his eye in the classical repertory.
The design of the base can be linked to sketches made by his friend, the architect Sir William Chambers in his 'Franco-Italian Album' during a sketching tour of Italy from 1749-55. Chambers' sketches for clock cases in particular show the similar application of the ram's head and swags united by medallions (ibid., p. 79, pl.
36). In a letter to his wife in March 1770, Boulton relayed how he and Chambers had breakfasted together and enjoyed a mutual exchange of ideas (ibid., p. 79).
MEDALLION MEN
Josiah Wedgwood was another close friend of Boulton's and his patterns are thought to be the source for the medallions found on the pedestals. Boulton's medallions of classical figures are almost identical to the cameos and intaglios made by Wedgwood and his partner James Tassie. All derive from the same classical source of Renaissance gems: many gem collections in Europe were widely published at this time and Boulton's library is recorded to contain A.F. Gori's Museum Florentinum (1731-1766), in which gems from the Medici collection were engraved. The subjects of the medallions on these vases are Venus Victorious, Sacrifice Group, the Heroic Figure four times and Hygieia twice (ibid., pp.314-315). Hygieia is shown with an olive branch in her right hand, as seen in Tassie's reproduction of Valerio Belli's gem, and holding a snake in her left hand over an altar, missing from Belli's original gem. This was produced by Wedgwood both as an intaglio and as a cameo (ibid., pl. 76.7, p. 112). The 'Heroic Figure' was described by Wedgwood and Bentley as 'A Conquering Hero, probably Perseus' or 'Diomedes or Perseus' in their 1773 catalogue. ( ibid., p. 110).
Boulton asked patrons to choose from a limited repertoire of motifs, and therefore each vase or pair of vases is adorned with their own combination. In all Boulton used nine medallions on recorded candle-vases of this type but these are invariably in gilt-bronze. What is unique about the Barratt pair - and may conceivably suggest that they are the earliest of this cameo model - is the hand-coloured biscuit medallions. As Goodison comments, 'These are, I suggest, confirmation that Boulton used Wedgwood cameos, as Wedgwood himself had suggested. They would have been bought as plain white biscuit cameos and coloured at Soho. These cameos also prompt the conclusion that Boulton copied them, and the other images, to produce the metal versions' (ibid., p.114).
PATTERNS OF THE PERIOD
The design of these cassollette-vases can be traced to Boulton's Pattern Book, p. 171 (ibid., fig s. 227; 312.1-2; 303). These Pattern Books were produced for use in his factory at Soho as the division of labour across specialized workshops within Boulton's factory meant that these pattern books were essential to the manufacturing process.
An almost identical pair of candle-vases, but with slightly more elaborate caps and with gilt 'cameo' medallions, is in a Private Collection (ibid., p.315, fig.302). The model was more frequently made as candelabra - the closest comparables being the pair at Weston Park, Stafforshire, which have no date of recorded purchase, but Lady Bridgman visited Soho in 1770 and Goodison has suggested that they were probably bought shortly after (ibid., p. 315). Further pairs include those sold by the late Major A.W. Foster, M.C., Apley Park, Bridnorth, Shropshire, Christie's, London, 28 May 1964, lot 120, and acquired from Norman Adams at the Antique Dealer's Fair, Grosvenor House, 29 June 1964 (sold anonymously, '50 Years of Collecting: The Decorative Arts of Georgian England', Christie's, London, 14 May 2003, lot 103 (£201,250 including premium); and a further pair sold anonymously at Christie's London, 18 June 2008, lot 1 (£133,250).
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Books from French designers illustrating classical sources sold readily in Britain, and in particular the splendid prints in the highly influential publication by Pierre-Franois Hugues ('Baron d'Hancarville'), Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honble William Hamilton, 1766-67. Hamilton was the English diplomatic representative at Naples, and this book had a strong influence on Boulton's design (ibid., p. 42). Boulton used this book as a direct source for designs for vases. While it was the observation of French work during a visit to Paris in 1765 that gave Boulton the very idea of making vases to serve as cassollettes and candelabra, he was never a slavish imitator of French designs, and his work is thoroughly British. He wrote in a letter to the Earl of Findlater, 20 January 1776, 'whether it be French, Roman, Anthenian, Egyptian, Arabesk, Etruscan or any other...I would have elegant simplicity the leading principle, wheras in my opinion such of the orfèvre of the French as I have generally seen is trop chargé' (N. Goodison, Ormolu: Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, p. 48). He won the encouragement of his English patrons and the praise of the Empress Catherine of Russia, who in 1772 noted that his ormolu vases were 'superior in every respect to the French' (ibid., p. 48). Clearly, Boulton was an innovator who drew upon a variety of sources to produce elegant, high quality luxury goods that reflected the latest manufacturing practices and artistic trends.
MATTHEW BOULTON AND THE SOHO FACTORY: 'A MECHANICS PARADISE'
Born in Birmingham in September 1728 to a buckle, button and 'toy' maker, Matthew Boulton was an 18th century Renaissance man: an artisan, designer, scientific inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and a great British innovator. The Birmingham of Boulton's day was an environment in which scientific enquiry was encouraged and inventiveness prospered (Goodison, ibid., 2002, p. 16). After his father's death in 1759, Boulton went into partnership with John Fothergill, and in 1762 they established the Soho Manufactory, two miles north of Birmingham. The aims of Soho were to enlarge manufactures, to improve the process of production without sacrificing quality but always with an aim to save costs. In the era of Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird with an Air Pump (1768) and the climate of the early Industrial Revolution, the Soho Manufactory was a melting pot of scientific endeavour and artistic creativity on a wide scale. The factory manufactured a wide variety of luxury objects; from small steel buckles, gilded chatelaines, to ormolu and silver, as well as reproducing oil paintings using a mechanical process. Within the factory, there were workshops specializing in each aspect of the mechanical process, such as burnishing, chasing, gilding, drawing, cementing, etc. Objects and their components, were taken from one workshop to another and men and women in each shop contributed their part to the whole.
Soho 'seemed a mechanics' paradise, a promised land, a wonder of modernity with Boulton its chief sorcerer. This was just the impression that Boulton wanted to create' (J. Uglow, The Lunar Men, London, 2002, p. 132). With its wares exported all over the world, the factory attracted an international clientele. Boulton boasted in 1767, 'Last week we had Prince Poniatowski, nephew of the King of Poland, and the French, Danish and Dutch ambassadors; this week we have the Count Orloff and five celebrated brothers who are such favourites with the Empress of Russia; and only yesterday I had the Viceroy of Ireland who dined with me. Scarcely a day passes without a visit from some distinguished personage' (Matthew Boulton Bicentenary Celebrations, Birmingham City Council, 2008, p. 1).
By 1771, the improved method of ormolu vase production and the quality of his metalwork, along with the encouragement of patrons, including the Earls of Warwick and Shelburne, Boulton held an exhibition and sale at James Christie's in London, 11-13 April 1770, which consisted of 265 lots of his latest vases and ormolu works of art. He also staged another sale a year later in 1771 (N. Goodison, op. cit., 2002, p. 51). By late 1770, silver had replaced ormolu as the most popular and profitable manufacture at Soho.
Boulton's later partnership with James Watt and their promotion of the steam engine is his greatest lasting accomplishment; however, Boulton's partnership with Fothergill is a testament to his commercial entrepreneurship and the importance of the decorative arts in England.
These elegant 'candle vases' by Matthew Boulton were made in his Soho workshop in the early 1770s. From the 1760s, the vogue in Great Britain for the 'antique taste' was encouraged in various forms by architects and designers such as James and Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers, and James 'Athenian' Stuart. On the advice of Lord Shelburne, Boulton purchased a copy of Adam's Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia in 1765. Adam and Boulton never met, but Adam's work must have had some effect in training his eye in the classical repertory.
The design of the base can be linked to sketches made by his friend, the architect Sir William Chambers in his 'Franco-Italian Album' during a sketching tour of Italy from 1749-55. Chambers' sketches for clock cases in particular show the similar application of the ram's head and swags united by medallions (ibid., p. 79, pl.
36). In a letter to his wife in March 1770, Boulton relayed how he and Chambers had breakfasted together and enjoyed a mutual exchange of ideas (ibid., p. 79).
MEDALLION MEN
Josiah Wedgwood was another close friend of Boulton's and his patterns are thought to be the source for the medallions found on the pedestals. Boulton's medallions of classical figures are almost identical to the cameos and intaglios made by Wedgwood and his partner James Tassie. All derive from the same classical source of Renaissance gems: many gem collections in Europe were widely published at this time and Boulton's library is recorded to contain A.F. Gori's Museum Florentinum (1731-1766), in which gems from the Medici collection were engraved. The subjects of the medallions on these vases are Venus Victorious, Sacrifice Group, the Heroic Figure four times and Hygieia twice (ibid., pp.314-315). Hygieia is shown with an olive branch in her right hand, as seen in Tassie's reproduction of Valerio Belli's gem, and holding a snake in her left hand over an altar, missing from Belli's original gem. This was produced by Wedgwood both as an intaglio and as a cameo (ibid., pl. 76.7, p. 112). The 'Heroic Figure' was described by Wedgwood and Bentley as 'A Conquering Hero, probably Perseus' or 'Diomedes or Perseus' in their 1773 catalogue. ( ibid., p. 110).
Boulton asked patrons to choose from a limited repertoire of motifs, and therefore each vase or pair of vases is adorned with their own combination. In all Boulton used nine medallions on recorded candle-vases of this type but these are invariably in gilt-bronze. What is unique about the Barratt pair - and may conceivably suggest that they are the earliest of this cameo model - is the hand-coloured biscuit medallions. As Goodison comments, 'These are, I suggest, confirmation that Boulton used Wedgwood cameos, as Wedgwood himself had suggested. They would have been bought as plain white biscuit cameos and coloured at Soho. These cameos also prompt the conclusion that Boulton copied them, and the other images, to produce the metal versions' (ibid., p.114).
PATTERNS OF THE PERIOD
The design of these cassollette-vases can be traced to Boulton's Pattern Book, p. 171 (ibid., fig s. 227; 312.1-2; 303). These Pattern Books were produced for use in his factory at Soho as the division of labour across specialized workshops within Boulton's factory meant that these pattern books were essential to the manufacturing process.
An almost identical pair of candle-vases, but with slightly more elaborate caps and with gilt 'cameo' medallions, is in a Private Collection (ibid., p.315, fig.302). The model was more frequently made as candelabra - the closest comparables being the pair at Weston Park, Stafforshire, which have no date of recorded purchase, but Lady Bridgman visited Soho in 1770 and Goodison has suggested that they were probably bought shortly after (ibid., p. 315). Further pairs include those sold by the late Major A.W. Foster, M.C., Apley Park, Bridnorth, Shropshire, Christie's, London, 28 May 1964, lot 120, and acquired from Norman Adams at the Antique Dealer's Fair, Grosvenor House, 29 June 1964 (sold anonymously, '50 Years of Collecting: The Decorative Arts of Georgian England', Christie's, London, 14 May 2003, lot 103 (£201,250 including premium); and a further pair sold anonymously at Christie's London, 18 June 2008, lot 1 (£133,250).
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Books from French designers illustrating classical sources sold readily in Britain, and in particular the splendid prints in the highly influential publication by Pierre-Franois Hugues ('Baron d'Hancarville'), Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honble William Hamilton, 1766-67. Hamilton was the English diplomatic representative at Naples, and this book had a strong influence on Boulton's design (ibid., p. 42). Boulton used this book as a direct source for designs for vases. While it was the observation of French work during a visit to Paris in 1765 that gave Boulton the very idea of making vases to serve as cassollettes and candelabra, he was never a slavish imitator of French designs, and his work is thoroughly British. He wrote in a letter to the Earl of Findlater, 20 January 1776, 'whether it be French, Roman, Anthenian, Egyptian, Arabesk, Etruscan or any other...I would have elegant simplicity the leading principle, wheras in my opinion such of the orfèvre of the French as I have generally seen is trop chargé' (N. Goodison, Ormolu: Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, p. 48). He won the encouragement of his English patrons and the praise of the Empress Catherine of Russia, who in 1772 noted that his ormolu vases were 'superior in every respect to the French' (ibid., p. 48). Clearly, Boulton was an innovator who drew upon a variety of sources to produce elegant, high quality luxury goods that reflected the latest manufacturing practices and artistic trends.
MATTHEW BOULTON AND THE SOHO FACTORY: 'A MECHANICS PARADISE'
Born in Birmingham in September 1728 to a buckle, button and 'toy' maker, Matthew Boulton was an 18th century Renaissance man: an artisan, designer, scientific inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and a great British innovator. The Birmingham of Boulton's day was an environment in which scientific enquiry was encouraged and inventiveness prospered (Goodison, ibid., 2002, p. 16). After his father's death in 1759, Boulton went into partnership with John Fothergill, and in 1762 they established the Soho Manufactory, two miles north of Birmingham. The aims of Soho were to enlarge manufactures, to improve the process of production without sacrificing quality but always with an aim to save costs. In the era of Joseph Wright of Derby's An Experiment on a Bird with an Air Pump (1768) and the climate of the early Industrial Revolution, the Soho Manufactory was a melting pot of scientific endeavour and artistic creativity on a wide scale. The factory manufactured a wide variety of luxury objects; from small steel buckles, gilded chatelaines, to ormolu and silver, as well as reproducing oil paintings using a mechanical process. Within the factory, there were workshops specializing in each aspect of the mechanical process, such as burnishing, chasing, gilding, drawing, cementing, etc. Objects and their components, were taken from one workshop to another and men and women in each shop contributed their part to the whole.
Soho 'seemed a mechanics' paradise, a promised land, a wonder of modernity with Boulton its chief sorcerer. This was just the impression that Boulton wanted to create' (J. Uglow, The Lunar Men, London, 2002, p. 132). With its wares exported all over the world, the factory attracted an international clientele. Boulton boasted in 1767, 'Last week we had Prince Poniatowski, nephew of the King of Poland, and the French, Danish and Dutch ambassadors; this week we have the Count Orloff and five celebrated brothers who are such favourites with the Empress of Russia; and only yesterday I had the Viceroy of Ireland who dined with me. Scarcely a day passes without a visit from some distinguished personage' (Matthew Boulton Bicentenary Celebrations, Birmingham City Council, 2008, p. 1).
By 1771, the improved method of ormolu vase production and the quality of his metalwork, along with the encouragement of patrons, including the Earls of Warwick and Shelburne, Boulton held an exhibition and sale at James Christie's in London, 11-13 April 1770, which consisted of 265 lots of his latest vases and ormolu works of art. He also staged another sale a year later in 1771 (N. Goodison, op. cit., 2002, p. 51). By late 1770, silver had replaced ormolu as the most popular and profitable manufacture at Soho.
Boulton's later partnership with James Watt and their promotion of the steam engine is his greatest lasting accomplishment; however, Boulton's partnership with Fothergill is a testament to his commercial entrepreneurship and the importance of the decorative arts in England.