CIRCA 1780, PROBABLY BILSTON

This ornamental vase garniture, concealing candle nozzles to the underside, comprise sacred altars capped by Grecian 'krater' urns. They are decorated overall with the Garter star, reproducing designs in silver and plate stamped with the same motif - a so-called sun - of Matthew Boulton (T. & B. Hughes, English Painted Enamels, rev. ed., London, 1967, p. 102). They may well have been executed in Bilston, a town west of Birmingham, where early experiments in the application of vitreous enamels to thin metal took place as early as 1719, under the direction of the metal japanners, Joseph Allen and Samuel Stone. Production grew and Bilston became the centre for domestic japanned iron and tinplate wares under John Hartill, Bickley and Sons, Hanson and Jacksons and Homer. These metal-workers and Matthew Boulton played an important part in establishing this relatively new domestic industry. It is interesting to note, therefore, that the cassolette form was particularly championed by Messrs. Boulton and Fothergill. Similar cassolettes are also known to have been executed by the Swiss craftsman Anthony Tregent of Denmark Street, London (fl. 1750s-1775) (A. Theelke, English Decorated Enamel Clock Dials of the 18th Century, 1983).

An identical set of at least four cassolettes of the same form and with the same 'Garter star' decoration, though lacking their chains, was in the collection of the Hon. Mrs Ionides (Hughes, op. cit., p. 19, pl. 3). A single example is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (S. Benjamin, English Enamel Boxes, London, 1978, p. 86). A further set of six, also lacking their chains, was formerly in the collection of Manolo March at San Galceran, Mallorca, sold Christie's, London, 28-29 October 2009, lot 169 (£23,750).