Lot Essay
The crest is that of Bacon.
These candlesticks are based on designs by Robert Adam preserved in the Sir John Soane Museum, London. An extensive table service, including candelabra of similar form to these candlesticks, was executed to Adam's designs for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Bt., in 1774. A pair of soupt tureens from this service, of the same date as these candlesticks and with the same maker's mark, was sold in these Rooms, April 17, 1996, lot 153.
The attribution of this maker's mark to Carter is a recent one. The volume of largeworkers' marks entered at Goldsmiths' Hall between 1758 and 1773 is missing, making a positive attribution impossible, but enough circumstantial evidence exists to point to Carter. Carter ran foul of the Goldsmiths' Company several times during the 1760s and is recorded as supplying plate to Parker & Wakelin.
Research by Oliver Fairclough, Curator of the National Museum of Wales, has revealed that the Williams-Wynn service was supplied by Jospeh Creswell, a fashionable retailer who was one of the first tenants of the Adam brothers' development known as the Adelphi. It is tempting to assume, therefore, that these candlesticks may well have been supplied by Creswell to the Bacon family, although they are not known as patrons of the Adam brothers.
These candlesticks are based on designs by Robert Adam preserved in the Sir John Soane Museum, London. An extensive table service, including candelabra of similar form to these candlesticks, was executed to Adam's designs for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Bt., in 1774. A pair of soupt tureens from this service, of the same date as these candlesticks and with the same maker's mark, was sold in these Rooms, April 17, 1996, lot 153.
The attribution of this maker's mark to Carter is a recent one. The volume of largeworkers' marks entered at Goldsmiths' Hall between 1758 and 1773 is missing, making a positive attribution impossible, but enough circumstantial evidence exists to point to Carter. Carter ran foul of the Goldsmiths' Company several times during the 1760s and is recorded as supplying plate to Parker & Wakelin.
Research by Oliver Fairclough, Curator of the National Museum of Wales, has revealed that the Williams-Wynn service was supplied by Jospeh Creswell, a fashionable retailer who was one of the first tenants of the Adam brothers' development known as the Adelphi. It is tempting to assume, therefore, that these candlesticks may well have been supplied by Creswell to the Bacon family, although they are not known as patrons of the Adam brothers.