.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The arms are those of Sir David Ochterlony, 1st baronet, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1758. He was a major-general in the army and served in the East Indies with great distinction. He successfully led a regiment of Indian troops against the French at Gdalr in 1783, the first time native troops under British leadership had fought Europeans. Ochterlony earned the title "conqueror of Nepal" in 1814 for his inspired leadership during the British invasion of Nepal. Fighting in the snowy heights of the Himalaya mountains, his troops advanced through rugged and unknown territory, dragging 18-pounder guns by elephants. There they soundly defeated the Grkhas and gained the Nepalese territory west of the Kli river. He was honored with unanimous thanks of both houses of Parliament, created a Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and, in 1816, created a baronet. He never married and continued to serve abroad until shortly before his death in 1825.
Another Warwick Vase with cover, by Benjamin Smith II and III, 1817, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, October 21, 1997, lot 180. The Smith version, however, has a heraldic finial rather than the sculptural group used by Storr on the present example.
The Warwick Vase, a colossal marble vase measuring nearly six feet high, dates from the 2nd century A.D. It was found in fragments in 1770 at the bottom of a lake at Hadrian's Villa near Rome by a group of Englishmen and was acquired by Sir William Hamilton, at the time Ambassador to Naples. Hamilton in turn sold it, now restored, to his kinsman, Charles (Greville), 2nd Earl of Warwick, who set it up in the grounds of Warwick Castle. The vase had been engraved by Piranesi in 1778, and these prints provided the inspiration for versions of the vase in silver and silver-gilt during the Regency period. Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the royal goldsmiths, appear to have supplied most of the Warwick Vases, the most notable being the set of twelve commissioned by the Prince Regent and struck with the maker's mark of Paul Storr, now at Windsor Castle. The Duke of York, second son of George III, owned a set of four which were included in the sale of his silver at Christie's in 1827.
Of his marble vase, the Earl of Warwick wrote "I built a noble greenhouse, and . . . placed in it a Vase, considered as the finest remains of Grecian art extant for size and beauty." The vase, however, did have one critic. The Hon. John Byng, later 5th Viscount Torrington and author of a series of fascinating and at times irascible journals of his rides through England, spoke thus of the Roman monument when describing his visit to Warwick Castle: "The upper court is environed by old walls and turrets, o'erhung with ivy; the portcullis down; and nothing to disgrace the taste of antiquity, but a vulgar overgrown Roman basin in the center of the court; which I would toss into the center of the river, or give to the church for a font!" (C. Bruyn Andrews, ed. The Torrington Diaries, a selection from the tours of the Hon. John Byng between the years 1781 and 1794, London, 1954, p. 102).
The fine sculptural group on the cover may be attributed to either John Flaxman or Thomas Stothard. Both sculptors sold drawings for silver to Rundell's in this period, and their designs were modelled by William Theed and E.H. Baily. Theed was Rundell's chief modeller until his death in 1817, and E.H. Baily was a pupil of Flaxman who formally joined Rundell's in 1815. From 1807 to 1819, Paul Storr managed Rundell's silver workshops, where these artists' models were executed in silver. (See Shirley Bury, "Flaxman as a Designer of Silverwork," John Flaxman, 1979, pp. 140-151.)
Another Warwick Vase with cover, by Benjamin Smith II and III, 1817, was sold at Sotheby's, New York, October 21, 1997, lot 180. The Smith version, however, has a heraldic finial rather than the sculptural group used by Storr on the present example.
The Warwick Vase, a colossal marble vase measuring nearly six feet high, dates from the 2nd century A.D. It was found in fragments in 1770 at the bottom of a lake at Hadrian's Villa near Rome by a group of Englishmen and was acquired by Sir William Hamilton, at the time Ambassador to Naples. Hamilton in turn sold it, now restored, to his kinsman, Charles (Greville), 2nd Earl of Warwick, who set it up in the grounds of Warwick Castle. The vase had been engraved by Piranesi in 1778, and these prints provided the inspiration for versions of the vase in silver and silver-gilt during the Regency period. Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the royal goldsmiths, appear to have supplied most of the Warwick Vases, the most notable being the set of twelve commissioned by the Prince Regent and struck with the maker's mark of Paul Storr, now at Windsor Castle. The Duke of York, second son of George III, owned a set of four which were included in the sale of his silver at Christie's in 1827.
Of his marble vase, the Earl of Warwick wrote "I built a noble greenhouse, and . . . placed in it a Vase, considered as the finest remains of Grecian art extant for size and beauty." The vase, however, did have one critic. The Hon. John Byng, later 5th Viscount Torrington and author of a series of fascinating and at times irascible journals of his rides through England, spoke thus of the Roman monument when describing his visit to Warwick Castle: "The upper court is environed by old walls and turrets, o'erhung with ivy; the portcullis down; and nothing to disgrace the taste of antiquity, but a vulgar overgrown Roman basin in the center of the court; which I would toss into the center of the river, or give to the church for a font!" (C. Bruyn Andrews, ed. The Torrington Diaries, a selection from the tours of the Hon. John Byng between the years 1781 and 1794, London, 1954, p. 102).
The fine sculptural group on the cover may be attributed to either John Flaxman or Thomas Stothard. Both sculptors sold drawings for silver to Rundell's in this period, and their designs were modelled by William Theed and E.H. Baily. Theed was Rundell's chief modeller until his death in 1817, and E.H. Baily was a pupil of Flaxman who formally joined Rundell's in 1815. From 1807 to 1819, Paul Storr managed Rundell's silver workshops, where these artists' models were executed in silver. (See Shirley Bury, "Flaxman as a Designer of Silverwork," John Flaxman, 1979, pp. 140-151.)