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Lot Essay
James Wyatt (d. 1813), was architect to King George III, being appointed his Surveyor-General and Comptroller of the Office of Works in 1796, upon the death of his predecessor Sir William Chambers. Richard Dalton, the King's Librarian, had been a great assistance in promoting Wyatt, and it was he who brought the young Wyatt to the attention of the King and Chambers following a chance meeting in Venice, at the Home of Consul Smith, thereby drawing him into an exclusive circle. During Chambers' thirty-year dominance of the council of the Royal Academy, Wyatt was one of only four architects to be elected, two of the others being Chambers' students. Wyatt was widely recognised as a genius of design and became one of the most fashionable and prodigious architects of his time, gaining many important commissions, such as the creation of the ill-fated Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, for William Beckford.
These antique term-pedestals sit comfortably alongside Wyatt's known oeuvre and can be particularly linked, in terms of concept, with the 'Etruscan Room' of 1776 he created at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk for Sir Gerald Vanneck, 2nd Baron Huntingfield (d. 1791). The decoration of this small ante-room, intended as a corridor to the main reception rooms, is painted with terracotta coloured 'Etruscan' figures and vases to lamp-pedestals, walls, doors and ceiling. Further parallels can be seen in the saloon at Heveningham where many of the arabesque panels, painted by Biago Rebecca, are centred by very closely related oval portrait medallions depicting 'Roman' profile busts. Other elements of design to this pair of pedestals are visible elsewhere in his oeuvre, for example the band of patera-centred oval cartouches appear in Wyatt's frieze in the cupola room at Heaton Hall, Lancashire, and John Martin Robinson describes Wyatt as 'often combining blacks and terracottas with paler colours' (J.M. Robinson, James Wyatt, Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2012, pp. 91, 92 & 83).
Amongst the painted furniture supplied by Gillows is a finely-painted cornice for a four-poster bed for Lord Montgomerie, Coilsfield House, Ayrshire, the design of which is an evolution of a cornice designed by Wyatt in 1770 for an organ case for St Modwen's Church, Staffordshire. Wyatt had strong links with the London and Lancaster cabinet-making firm of Gillows for whom he designed furniture and whom he used to execute his furniture designs for notable commissions, such as that at Heaton. Indeed, it was probably at Heaton that Wyatt was first introduced to the firm by his patron Sir Thomas Egerton, Bt. (later 1st Earl of Wilton; 1749-1814) circa 1772 (ibid, pp. 148 & 163, pl. 164).
These antique term-pedestals sit comfortably alongside Wyatt's known oeuvre and can be particularly linked, in terms of concept, with the 'Etruscan Room' of 1776 he created at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk for Sir Gerald Vanneck, 2nd Baron Huntingfield (d. 1791). The decoration of this small ante-room, intended as a corridor to the main reception rooms, is painted with terracotta coloured 'Etruscan' figures and vases to lamp-pedestals, walls, doors and ceiling. Further parallels can be seen in the saloon at Heveningham where many of the arabesque panels, painted by Biago Rebecca, are centred by very closely related oval portrait medallions depicting 'Roman' profile busts. Other elements of design to this pair of pedestals are visible elsewhere in his oeuvre, for example the band of patera-centred oval cartouches appear in Wyatt's frieze in the cupola room at Heaton Hall, Lancashire, and John Martin Robinson describes Wyatt as 'often combining blacks and terracottas with paler colours' (J.M. Robinson, James Wyatt, Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2012, pp. 91, 92 & 83).
Amongst the painted furniture supplied by Gillows is a finely-painted cornice for a four-poster bed for Lord Montgomerie, Coilsfield House, Ayrshire, the design of which is an evolution of a cornice designed by Wyatt in 1770 for an organ case for St Modwen's Church, Staffordshire. Wyatt had strong links with the London and Lancaster cabinet-making firm of Gillows for whom he designed furniture and whom he used to execute his furniture designs for notable commissions, such as that at Heaton. Indeed, it was probably at Heaton that Wyatt was first introduced to the firm by his patron Sir Thomas Egerton, Bt. (later 1st Earl of Wilton; 1749-1814) circa 1772 (ibid, pp. 148 & 163, pl. 164).