CIRCA 1765

These finely carved urn stands are identical to a pair in the celebrated collection formed by Sir John H. Ward, K.C.V.O. for Dudley House, his Park Lane mansion, in the early part of this century. Ward's remarkable collection was formed under the advice of the great furniture historian R.W. Symonds, who established himself as the foremost authority in English furniture, assembling the renowned collections of Percival Griffiths, Samuel Messer, J.S.Sykes, Lord Plender among others. The urn stands are illustrated in a four-part article on the collection published by H. Cescinsky in The Connoisseur in 1921 ('The Collection of the Hon. Sir John H. Ward, K.C.V.O. Part IV', August 1921, p.200, fig.XIII). This pair differs from the Ward pair only in the lack of a fruited pendant to the base and there is no evidence that these stands ever had such a finial.

A further pair of gilded urn stands of virtually the same form but differing in carved details is illustrated in H.H. Mulliner, The Decorative Arts in England, London, 1923, fig.30. These stands had come from Stansted Park in Sussex and it is suggested by Mulliner that they formed part of the suite of neoclassical seat furniture attributed to John Linnell that is now at the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California (illustrated H.H. Mulliner, op.cit., fig.27). While these share the same chanelled beaded elements terminating in long acanthus this connection seems implausible.