Lot Essay
The sideboard-pedestal's ormolu-enriched urns are of wine-krater form with 'Etruscan' handles provided by conjoined horns from bacchic satyr-masks, that are 'tied' to the rim by antique-fluted ribbons. The satyr-handled vase inspired by a pattern in Jacques Stella's Livre de vases, Paris, c. 1667, together with acorn-enriched lids, derives from a design by F. Kirschner (d. 1789). The pattern was adopted by Wedgwood around 1770 (T. Clifford in English Ceramic Circle, Transactions, vol. 10, pt. 3, p. 172, pl. 85). A pattern for such pedestal-supported urns, with medallion and satyr enrichments, featured in Robert and James Adam's, The Works in Architecture, London, 1773-79. Related urns, en suite with a sideboard-table and cellaret, were supplied by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) for Paxton House, Berwickshire about 1775 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978 (fig. 351).