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Lot Essay
A bill-head dated 1806 advertised the studio and spacious showrooms of Robert Shout (d. 1823) at 18 High Holborn as having 'a large assortment of figures and tripods for holding lamps or candles of various patterns and dimensions, fitted up in a new and fashionable style: suitably adapted for walls and staircases, pier tables, sideboards, Chimney pieces etc.' (A. Coleridge, 'The 3rd and 4th Dukes of Atholl and the firm of Chipchase', The Connoisseur, February 1966, p. 101, and T. Clifford, 'The plaster shops of the rococo and neo-classical era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 1992, vol. IV, no. 1, pp. 63-65). Robert Shout and his father Benjamin worked together at their Holborn premises from the late 1770s to the 1820s, they were recorded in Holden's London Directory (1806, 1807) as 'statuaries, masons and plaster figure makers' and were noted for their production of 'bronz'd' goods. The Garrard's Act of 1798 was passed to protect the individual makers and dictated that all subsequent works be signed and dated (A. Coleridge, 'The 3rd and 4th Dukes of Atholl and the firm of Chipchase',Op. Cit.) which accounts for the prominent signatures and dates on these lamps.
Surviving accounts detailing Rev. Shipton's expendature on the 1806 renovations and extension at Crawley, deposited with the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, note a payment to Shout for Statuary of £119.2s.11d. In Margaret Jourdain's Country Life article of 20 January 1923, titled 'Regency Decoration and Furniture at Crawley House', she discusses the remarkable survival of the 1806 interiors in great detail and describes these wall lights hanging in the hallway. Professor Sir Albert Richardson discovered many of the original contents locked away in an attic when he was commissioned to install a new water supply and offices, prompting their reinstatement, and it was presumably via this established link with the Orlebar family that these lights subsequently came into his possession.
Surviving accounts detailing Rev. Shipton's expendature on the 1806 renovations and extension at Crawley, deposited with the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, note a payment to Shout for Statuary of £119.2s.11d. In Margaret Jourdain's Country Life article of 20 January 1923, titled 'Regency Decoration and Furniture at Crawley House', she discusses the remarkable survival of the 1806 interiors in great detail and describes these wall lights hanging in the hallway. Professor Sir Albert Richardson discovered many of the original contents locked away in an attic when he was commissioned to install a new water supply and offices, prompting their reinstatement, and it was presumably via this established link with the Orlebar family that these lights subsequently came into his possession.