BY MATTHEW BOULTON, CIRCA 1770-5

This vase closely corresponds with Matthew Boulton and John Fothergill's design for a vase perfume-burner in their Pattern Book, I (illustrated in N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 310, fig. 292). The handles of the present vase are now lacking but the basic shape and correlation to Boulton and Fothergill's design is evident, although the leaves to the base of the ovoid body are shorter and the holes to the pierced neck are larger in all the known related examples. The closest related example to the present vase is one previously with Hotspur, in 'red blue john' (ibid., fig. 291). The proportions are almost exactly the same, both in the height overall and the shape of the lid, which is more elongated than the design in the Pattern Book. A pair in blue john of the same proportions but with slightly shorter lids was sold by the Soviet Union, from either the Hermitage, Michailoff or Gatschina Palaces, St. Petersburg, at Rudolph Lepke's, Berlin, 6-7 November 1928, lots 201-2 (illustrated without their square bases though described as having them). A further pair in onyx, again with shorter lids, was sold by Osenat, Paris, 29 June 2008, lot 55 (150,000 Euros).