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Lot Essay
These elegant neoclassical torcheres once formed part of the now lost interiors of Cadland Park, Hampshire, and are firmly attributable to the celebrated late 18th-century English cabinet-makers William Ince and John Mayhew.
Built in circa 1775 for the banking scion the Hon. Robert Drummond, son of Andrew Drummond (1688–1769) the founder of Drummonds Bank, the perfectly proportioned marine villa was an early collaboration between the architect Henry Holland (1745–1806) and landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown (c. 1715–16–1783). Perched within sweeping parkland on the Solent coastline, surviving plans and elevations of the house suggest the present torcheres may have occupied two niches in the Hall – which is supported by them being fully decorated to only one side - and pigment analysis indicates an original duck-egg blue scheme with white highlights.
An estimate submitted to the Hon. Robert Drummond for ‘Building the Carcase of his new House at Fawley’ came to £3,050 and is preserved in the Sir John Soane Museum (D. Stroud, Henry Holland, His Life and Architecture, London, 1966, p. 39). The estimate for ‘Finishing’ amounted to a further £2,574 9s. 11.d and includes an annotation in Holland’s hand for ‘ornament plaistering in two rooms and staircase’ (Stroud, op. cit., p. 39).
It is likely these torcheres were supplied by Ince & Mayhew who worked with Holland on a number of important commissions, including at nearby Broadlands for Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston. A number of other pieces of furniture which remain in the Drummond collections are identifiable with the firm and mirror pieces supplied to James Alexander, later 1st Earl of Caledon for Caledon Castle in 1785 lending further weight to the attribution (see H. Roberts & C. Cator, Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, 2022, pp. 343 & 393, figs. 266 & 414). It is worth noting that Drummonds were also the firm’s bankers, together with other notable craftsman in the St. Martin’s area such as Thomas Chippendale.
Built in circa 1775 for the banking scion the Hon. Robert Drummond, son of Andrew Drummond (1688–1769) the founder of Drummonds Bank, the perfectly proportioned marine villa was an early collaboration between the architect Henry Holland (1745–1806) and landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown (c. 1715–16–1783). Perched within sweeping parkland on the Solent coastline, surviving plans and elevations of the house suggest the present torcheres may have occupied two niches in the Hall – which is supported by them being fully decorated to only one side - and pigment analysis indicates an original duck-egg blue scheme with white highlights.
An estimate submitted to the Hon. Robert Drummond for ‘Building the Carcase of his new House at Fawley’ came to £3,050 and is preserved in the Sir John Soane Museum (D. Stroud, Henry Holland, His Life and Architecture, London, 1966, p. 39). The estimate for ‘Finishing’ amounted to a further £2,574 9s. 11.d and includes an annotation in Holland’s hand for ‘ornament plaistering in two rooms and staircase’ (Stroud, op. cit., p. 39).
It is likely these torcheres were supplied by Ince & Mayhew who worked with Holland on a number of important commissions, including at nearby Broadlands for Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston. A number of other pieces of furniture which remain in the Drummond collections are identifiable with the firm and mirror pieces supplied to James Alexander, later 1st Earl of Caledon for Caledon Castle in 1785 lending further weight to the attribution (see H. Roberts & C. Cator, Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, 2022, pp. 343 & 393, figs. 266 & 414). It is worth noting that Drummonds were also the firm’s bankers, together with other notable craftsman in the St. Martin’s area such as Thomas Chippendale.