A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU AND BLUE JOHN 'LYRE VASE' PERFUME BURNERS

Designed in the French 'antique' style in the form of krater-shaped 'sacred urns' on drum-shaped altar plinths with double stepped bases, these ormolu-mounted vases were used as 'essence pots' and have gilt-brass linings to the interior. These 'lyre' vases in blue john and with solid blue john lids, are very rare.

Sir Nicholas Goodison notes that a vase was listed in Boulton and Fothergill's 1782 stock list as 'Lyre essence vase, white marble, in parts broken', and a 'small lyre vase' was recorded in the Day Book in 1780. Although a specific design for the present vases has not been located, a much less elaborate version is illustrated in the pattern books from around 1770 (N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, fig. 161f). Several of the features of the lyre vase are included in other Boulton designs from circa 1771-2, such as the stepped circular base with guilloche banding, described in the 1782 Inventory as the 'old round step' (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 342), which exists (also in blue john) on two pairs of candle vases, one pair formerly in and one pair remaining in the Gerstenfeld Collection (ibid., p. 298, figs. 261-2; E. Lennox-Boyd, Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pp. 173-4, figs. 123-124). The Gerstenfeld candle vases also feature the same cornice and base mount to the cylindrical pedestal. Sir Nicholas noted that some of the mounts, in particular the lyres and bucrania, may have been inspired by designs of William Chambers or Diederich Nicolaus Andersen.

Amongst examples of lyre vases known to exist, those in blue john are certainly far rarer than those in white marble. In addition to the Goodison pair of vases there is a single blue john lyre vase in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, the lid of which is pierced and in ormolu. Only a few examples of lyre vases in blue john have come onto the market and both of these have pierced lids and differing design to the bodies - the lyre uprights are pierced with a lozenge and laurel wreathes sit above the garlands issuing from ram's masks - and the socle has a gadrooned base and fluted foot: a single example was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 13 November 2018, lot 368 (£75,000 inc. premium); a further single example was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 24 November 2004, lot 21 (£12,000 inc. premium; remounted and re-gilt). Lyre vases in white marble survive in greater number and include: a single example sold anonymously from a New York private collection, Christie's, New York, 14-15 December 2015, lot 206 ($55,000 inc. premium); a pair sold anonymously at Christie's, New York, 17 October 1992, lot 160 ($93,500 inc. premium); another pair sold anonymously at Christie's, New York, 17 October 1997, lot 218 ($134,500 inc. premium); a third pair formerly in the collection of the late Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 November 2008, lot 77 (£76,850) and latterly with Ronald Phillips Ltd, exhibited at the Winter Antiques Fair, 2018; a pair, with gadrooned lower edge to the socle above a fluted square foot, from the collection of the late Mrs. Robert Tritton, Godmersham Park, Kent, Christie's house sale, 6 June 1983, lot 97; and a pair with pierced lids, formerly with H. Blairman & Sons (Goodison, op. cit., 1974, pl. 117).