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Lot Essay
The serpents, emerging from cord-tied bull-rushes emblematic of Pan, derive from antique tripods such as were discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii in the 18th Century. This theme also appears on the bronzed serpent candelabra stands listed in 1804 at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire and sold at Christie's, London, 5 July 1990, lot 84.
The distinctive foliate-trailed gallery relates to a tripod table at Pavlosk incorporating an Imperial porcelain plaque dated 1798 (S. Chenevière, Russian Furniture the Golden Age 1780-1840, London, 1988, no. 13, pp. 28-9), as well as to that on a malachite gueridon in the Hall of War at Pavlosk (illustrated in A. de Gourcoff ed., Pavlosk, The Palace and the Park, Paris, 1993, p. 116). Moreover, the distinctive treatment of the bull-rushes and maces is shared with an ormolu-mounted porphyry candelabrum of krater vase form, executed in Kolyvan circa 1810 and now in the Hermitage (illustrated in E.M. Effimova, Russian Stoneware in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, 1961, no. 61).
The watercolour of the Pink Pavillion at Pavlosk displays palm chandeliers of similar character (J. Bartenev, V. Batazhkora, Russian Interior Decoration in the Nineteenth Century, 1984, p. 36, fig. 24) and this decorative theme is in turn translated into a related gueridon (illustrated in Pavlosk Palace and Park, 1976, fig. 92, p. 125).
An identical pair of gueridons are in the Beit Collection at Russborough, Co. Wicklow.
The distinctive foliate-trailed gallery relates to a tripod table at Pavlosk incorporating an Imperial porcelain plaque dated 1798 (S. Chenevière, Russian Furniture the Golden Age 1780-1840, London, 1988, no. 13, pp. 28-9), as well as to that on a malachite gueridon in the Hall of War at Pavlosk (illustrated in A. de Gourcoff ed., Pavlosk, The Palace and the Park, Paris, 1993, p. 116). Moreover, the distinctive treatment of the bull-rushes and maces is shared with an ormolu-mounted porphyry candelabrum of krater vase form, executed in Kolyvan circa 1810 and now in the Hermitage (illustrated in E.M. Effimova, Russian Stoneware in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, 1961, no. 61).
The watercolour of the Pink Pavillion at Pavlosk displays palm chandeliers of similar character (J. Bartenev, V. Batazhkora, Russian Interior Decoration in the Nineteenth Century, 1984, p. 36, fig. 24) and this decorative theme is in turn translated into a related gueridon (illustrated in Pavlosk Palace and Park, 1976, fig. 92, p. 125).
An identical pair of gueridons are in the Beit Collection at Russborough, Co. Wicklow.