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Lot Essay
With their stylized 'draco' finials and the distinctive English chasing of the mounts, these ewers can be confidently attributed to the English marchand-mercier Edward Holmes Baldock (d.1846). Appointed 'Purveyor of China, Earthenware and Glass to William IV, Baldock was responsible for the formation of many of the greatest 19th Century English collections of French furniture, including those of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Northumberland, the Earl of Lonsdale, William Beckford and George Byng (G. de Bellaigue, 'Edward Holmes Baldock - Part 1', The Connoisseur, August, 1975, p.292). Acting both as a manufacturer and retailer, Baldock's name appears as a buyer in many of the more spectacular public auctions of the 19th Century, and he specialised in selling not only the chefs-d'oeuvres of the Ancien Regime, but also in embellishing plainer examples of 18th Century ébénisterie and commissioning ormolu mounts in the Louis XV style to mount existing 18th Century Sèvres and Oriental porcelain.
A pair of Sèvres porcelain pots à oille du Roi of circa 1756-79, supplied by Baldock to Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch around 1830 with closely related 'draco' mounts, was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 17.
Baldock almost invariably used an 18th Century prototype for ormolu mounts that he retailed, and it is extremely interesting, therefore, that an almost identical pair of Louis XV ewers, formerly in the collection of Count Hector Baltazzi in Paris and subsequently acquired by Duveen for Mrs. Anna Thomson Dodge, was sold at Christie's London, 24 June 1971, lot 13. It is certainly a possibility that the Dodge pair were the prototype for these ewers.
A pair of Sèvres porcelain pots à oille du Roi of circa 1756-79, supplied by Baldock to Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch around 1830 with closely related 'draco' mounts, was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 17.
Baldock almost invariably used an 18th Century prototype for ormolu mounts that he retailed, and it is extremely interesting, therefore, that an almost identical pair of Louis XV ewers, formerly in the collection of Count Hector Baltazzi in Paris and subsequently acquired by Duveen for Mrs. Anna Thomson Dodge, was sold at Christie's London, 24 June 1971, lot 13. It is certainly a possibility that the Dodge pair were the prototype for these ewers.