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Lot Essay
The model for these archaeological 'antique’ tripod tables almost certainly derives from the marble tripod altar preserved in the Museo Capitolino, Rome, illustrated in Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Vasi, candelabra, cippi, sarcophagi, 1778 (pp. 1066-67, nos. 985 and 986). The 'Roman’ design was subsequently modified to reflect the severe Grecian style popularised by James 'Athenian’ Stuart (d. 1788) as seen in a set of three giltwood torcheres supplied to John Spencer, later 1st Earl Spencer, for the Great Staircase at Spencer House, London (A pair offered, 'The Spencer House Sale’, Christie’s, London, 8 July 2010, lot 1004).
Although the maker of the present pair of tables cannot be attributed, the design was highly fashionable in the Regency period, appearing in designs by Thomas Hope (d. 1831). A similar marble stand/table was in Hope’s collection at the Deepdene, Surrey, in the Statue Gallery (Ed. D. Watkin, P. Hewat-Jaboor, Thomas Hope Regency Designer, New Haven and London, 2008, p. 118, fig. 7-20). Between 23 April 1810 and 8 June 1811 the firm of B. Vulliamy & Son, London supplied a group of sixteen figural bronze and marble six-light candelabra on comparable torchères to George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, for the Circular Drawing Room at Carlton House, Pall Mall, London (a pair of the candelabra, sold Christie’s, New York, 16 April 1998, lot 57). For the royal commission, at least eighteen craftsmen were involved in the production of the first six pairs of candelabra and paid a total of £1174 17s 2d.
The design also regularly featured in the work of the celebrated architect-designer, James Wyatt (d. 1813), on a tripod designed by Wyatt for the dining room at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk and in particular, a pair of closely related torchères flanking the bottom of the grand sweeping staircase at Dodington Hall, Gloucestershire (J. Martin Robinson, James Wyatt (1746-1813) Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2012, fig. 148, and The Wyatts, An Architectural Dynasty, Oxford, 1979, fig. 35). Wyatt’s eldest son, and pupil, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (d. 1852), also introduced a similar pair of pedestal stands as the precursor to a grand staircase in a drawing prepared for Stratfield Saye, Hampshire for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Four related stands were furthermore illustrated by Benjamin Wyatt on the front elevation of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London published in 1813 in Observations on the Design for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; in 1811, Wyatt won a competition to rebuild the Theatre Royal, which had been destroyed by fire in 1809 (D. Linstrum, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: The Wyatt Family, Farnborough, 1974, fig. 12).
Although the maker of the present pair of tables cannot be attributed, the design was highly fashionable in the Regency period, appearing in designs by Thomas Hope (d. 1831). A similar marble stand/table was in Hope’s collection at the Deepdene, Surrey, in the Statue Gallery (Ed. D. Watkin, P. Hewat-Jaboor, Thomas Hope Regency Designer, New Haven and London, 2008, p. 118, fig. 7-20). Between 23 April 1810 and 8 June 1811 the firm of B. Vulliamy & Son, London supplied a group of sixteen figural bronze and marble six-light candelabra on comparable torchères to George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, for the Circular Drawing Room at Carlton House, Pall Mall, London (a pair of the candelabra, sold Christie’s, New York, 16 April 1998, lot 57). For the royal commission, at least eighteen craftsmen were involved in the production of the first six pairs of candelabra and paid a total of £1174 17s 2d.
The design also regularly featured in the work of the celebrated architect-designer, James Wyatt (d. 1813), on a tripod designed by Wyatt for the dining room at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk and in particular, a pair of closely related torchères flanking the bottom of the grand sweeping staircase at Dodington Hall, Gloucestershire (J. Martin Robinson, James Wyatt (1746-1813) Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 2012, fig. 148, and The Wyatts, An Architectural Dynasty, Oxford, 1979, fig. 35). Wyatt’s eldest son, and pupil, Benjamin Dean Wyatt (d. 1852), also introduced a similar pair of pedestal stands as the precursor to a grand staircase in a drawing prepared for Stratfield Saye, Hampshire for Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Four related stands were furthermore illustrated by Benjamin Wyatt on the front elevation of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London published in 1813 in Observations on the Design for the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; in 1811, Wyatt won a competition to rebuild the Theatre Royal, which had been destroyed by fire in 1809 (D. Linstrum, Catalogue of the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects: The Wyatt Family, Farnborough, 1974, fig. 12).