THE PLINTH AND FEET REGENCY

Details

A GEORGE III GILTWOOD TRIPOD TORCHERE
The Plinth and Feet Regency
The circular top with foliate edge and on open pierced scrolls centred by a cluster of flowers, with scrolled legs and on a concave-sided canted triangular base with reeded edge and tortoise feet, almost certainly regilt
16¼ in. (41 cm.) diam.; 42 in. (106.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Supplied to the 5th Duke of Bolton (d.1765) for Hackwood and presumably altered for William, 2nd Baron Bolton (1782-1850).
By descent until sold in 1935 with Hackwood to William Berry (d.1954), 1st Viscount Camrose.
Thence by descent.

Literature

The 1905 Hampton and Sons Inventory: 'A pair of 3ft. 6in. finely cut and gilt torcheres on triangular bases with tortoise supports'

Special notice

VAT rate of 17.5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

Lot Essay

The form of this torchere, without plinth and feet, relates closely to torcheres supplied in 1763 (exactly the date when John Vardy's Hackwood was being furnished) by Samuel Norman (d.1767) for Petworth, Sussex (G. Jackson-Stops, 'Furniture at Petworth', Apollo, May 1977, p. 363, fig. 16).
Intended to stand in the corners of a room, it seems probable that the plinth and tortoise feet are a Regency addition, reflecting different methods and patterns of lighting. The tortoise feet are sacred to Hermes, protector of boundaries, and derive from the feet on a settee illustrated in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. LI.

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