Lot Essay
This important centrepiece with its matching dessert-stands is based on an adaptation by Jean-Jacques Boileau of a design by Charles Heathcote Tatham. Tatham was one of the leading exponents of the imitative classicism of the turn of the 19th Century and the move towards monumental plate. Indeed he set great store in the quality of "massiveness", describing it in the introduction to his Designs for Ornamental Plate, published in 1806, as "the principle characteristic of good plate". Tathams classicism was a reaction in part to that of Robert Adam, the most influential designer of the previous generation and whose delicate neo-classical style had been adapted by silversmiths for over forty years. Among these silversmiths were those in Birmingham and Sheffield using new manufacturing techniques which greatly reduced the amount of metal used to make silver objects. Tatham's designs, more sculptural than Adam's and truer to the antique prototypes, required a more extravagant use of metal. His archaeological approach to classicism, largely indebted to Piranesi, was highly influential among early 19th Century silversmiths.
The centrepiece of this dessert-service is, according to Hilary Young, one of nine known variations by Cornman made between 1800 and 1807, although not all of these may be extant, which are based on the design published by Tatham in 1806 for a centrepiece described as "A Piece of Plate designed and executed in Silver for the Earl of Carlisle in the year 1801" (see The Silver Society Journal, Autumn 1996, no.8, p.481, Philip Cornman: a biographical note). Many of the centrepieces are signed by the retailer Rundell and Bridge or Rundell, Bridge and Rundell as in the present case, who commissioned the pieces. Centrepieces made for the 6th Earl of Balcarres (1803), the 5th Earl of Selkirk (1805), his fellow Scottish peer, the 8th Baron Kinnaird (1806), Wilbraham Egerton (1807) and the present example, are all closely related and show, to varying degrees, the influence of not only Tatham's work but also that of Jean-Jacques Boileau. It is interesting to note that both a Mr Cornman and a Mr Boileau subscribed to Tatham's Ancient Ornamental Architecture, published in 1803.
Boileau is known to have been one of the craftsmen brought from France by Henry Holland in about 1787 to work on the decoration of Carlton House (H. Young, A Further Note on J. J. Boileau, A Forgotten Designer of Silver, Apollo, October 1986, p.335). He, like Tatham, was clearly heavily influenced by Piranesi's etchings. The distinctive Egyptian sphinx feet, the leafy volutes to the scroll branches and the broad fleshy waterleaves of the bowl on the current centrepieces, are all characteristic of Boileau's work and found in various pen and wash designs by him (H. Young, A Further Note on J. J. Boileau, op. cit., p.336). Many aspects of the ornament are characteristic of engravings from Percier and Fonataine's Recueil de d©coration intérieures, of 1801 and V. Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, of 1802. Most notable this form of ornament was employed for "The Egyptian Service" commsssioned by the Prince of Wales, later King George IV from Rundell, Bridge and Rundell which dates from 1802 onwards, illustrated in Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, exhibtion catalogue, nos. 85. 91 and 92
The centrepiece of this dessert-service is, according to Hilary Young, one of nine known variations by Cornman made between 1800 and 1807, although not all of these may be extant, which are based on the design published by Tatham in 1806 for a centrepiece described as "A Piece of Plate designed and executed in Silver for the Earl of Carlisle in the year 1801" (see The Silver Society Journal, Autumn 1996, no.8, p.481, Philip Cornman: a biographical note). Many of the centrepieces are signed by the retailer Rundell and Bridge or Rundell, Bridge and Rundell as in the present case, who commissioned the pieces. Centrepieces made for the 6th Earl of Balcarres (1803), the 5th Earl of Selkirk (1805), his fellow Scottish peer, the 8th Baron Kinnaird (1806), Wilbraham Egerton (1807) and the present example, are all closely related and show, to varying degrees, the influence of not only Tatham's work but also that of Jean-Jacques Boileau. It is interesting to note that both a Mr Cornman and a Mr Boileau subscribed to Tatham's Ancient Ornamental Architecture, published in 1803.
Boileau is known to have been one of the craftsmen brought from France by Henry Holland in about 1787 to work on the decoration of Carlton House (H. Young, A Further Note on J. J. Boileau, A Forgotten Designer of Silver, Apollo, October 1986, p.335). He, like Tatham, was clearly heavily influenced by Piranesi's etchings. The distinctive Egyptian sphinx feet, the leafy volutes to the scroll branches and the broad fleshy waterleaves of the bowl on the current centrepieces, are all characteristic of Boileau's work and found in various pen and wash designs by him (H. Young, A Further Note on J. J. Boileau, op. cit., p.336). Many aspects of the ornament are characteristic of engravings from Percier and Fonataine's Recueil de d©coration intérieures, of 1801 and V. Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, of 1802. Most notable this form of ornament was employed for "The Egyptian Service" commsssioned by the Prince of Wales, later King George IV from Rundell, Bridge and Rundell which dates from 1802 onwards, illustrated in Carlton House, The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, exhibtion catalogue, nos. 85. 91 and 92