Lot Essay
This imposing chandelier, with its bulbous stem terminating in a reeded 'krater-vase' and fruiting thyrsus knob and its urn finial issuing flame-like Roman acanthus, is designed in the George II 'antique' manner promoted by The Book of Architecture, 1728, published by James Gibbs (d.1754). It was presented by the London banker and drysalter Sir Richard Glyn (d.1773) for the court room headquarters of Bridewell Hospital in New Bridge Street. Sir Richard, among whose descendants was the celebrated Hollywood novelist Elinor Glyn, was Lord Mayor of London from 1758-1759 and served as President of Bridewell and Bethlem Hospitals from 1755-1773. He was thanked by the committee for the gift of the 'fine branch' on 28 July 1757. A related chandelier, presented in 1738 to a church in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, has been attributed to John Giles, a leading London brass-founder of the period ('Lighting the Country House', Temple Newsam Country House Studies, 1993, no. 8).
The district of Bridewell, between Fleet Street and the Thames, takes its name from the well of St.Bride or St.Bridget. Formerly the site of a royal castle since the time of William the Conqueror, Henry VIII built a palace there in 1525 and Edward VI subsequently gave Bridewell to the citizens of London as a refuge for vagrants and a house of correction. As Bridewell hospital it established a program to train poor children through apprenticeship to skilled 'artmasters', as well as continuing as a prison for petty offenders. Bridewell prison closed in the mid-nineteenth century, but its educational side opened as a school, now St. Edward's school at Witley, Surrey, where a portrait of Sir Richard Glyn by Zoffany still hangs. From 1557 until 1948 Bridewell was jointly governed with Bethlehem, another City hospital and the original Bedlam, founded in 1247 as a priory for the sisters and brethren of the Star of Bethlehem. Bethem expanded its role in the 14th and 15th centuries to include hospital patients and in 1547 was handed over by Henry VIII with all its revenues to the City of London as a hospital for lunatics, which with the exception of another in Granada, was the first of its kind in Europe. Bethlem Hospital was renowned for the brutality of its treatment of its inmates and was made famous through contemporary prints such as William Hogarth's series of The Rake's Progress. In 1675 it moved to new buildings in Moorfields and subsequently to its present site in St. George's Fields, Lambeth.
The district of Bridewell, between Fleet Street and the Thames, takes its name from the well of St.Bride or St.Bridget. Formerly the site of a royal castle since the time of William the Conqueror, Henry VIII built a palace there in 1525 and Edward VI subsequently gave Bridewell to the citizens of London as a refuge for vagrants and a house of correction. As Bridewell hospital it established a program to train poor children through apprenticeship to skilled 'artmasters', as well as continuing as a prison for petty offenders. Bridewell prison closed in the mid-nineteenth century, but its educational side opened as a school, now St. Edward's school at Witley, Surrey, where a portrait of Sir Richard Glyn by Zoffany still hangs. From 1557 until 1948 Bridewell was jointly governed with Bethlehem, another City hospital and the original Bedlam, founded in 1247 as a priory for the sisters and brethren of the Star of Bethlehem. Bethem expanded its role in the 14th and 15th centuries to include hospital patients and in 1547 was handed over by Henry VIII with all its revenues to the City of London as a hospital for lunatics, which with the exception of another in Granada, was the first of its kind in Europe. Bethlem Hospital was renowned for the brutality of its treatment of its inmates and was made famous through contemporary prints such as William Hogarth's series of The Rake's Progress. In 1675 it moved to new buildings in Moorfields and subsequently to its present site in St. George's Fields, Lambeth.