Lot Essay
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 acqired by Sir William Hamilton, at the time Ambassador to Naples. Hamilton in turn sold it, restored, to his kinsman, the Earl of Warwick, who set it up in the grounds of Warwick Castle. It is now in the Burrill Collection, Glasgow.
The vase had been engraved (in three views) by Piranesi in 1778 and these prints provided the inspiration for a host of versions of the vase in silver and silver-gilt during the Regency period. The monumental form was eminently suitable for use as a wine cooler, and was even used for tea services and salt cellars.
Paul Storr appears to have supplied most of the Warwick vases, most notable being the set of twelve commissioned by the Prince Regent and struck with his maker's mark now at Windsor Castle. The Duke of York owned a set of four which were included in the sale of his silver at Christie's in 1827.
The Warwick Vase was not without its critics, however. 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. Bryun 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 vase had been engraved (in three views) by Piranesi in 1778 and these prints provided the inspiration for a host of versions of the vase in silver and silver-gilt during the Regency period. The monumental form was eminently suitable for use as a wine cooler, and was even used for tea services and salt cellars.
Paul Storr appears to have supplied most of the Warwick vases, most notable being the set of twelve commissioned by the Prince Regent and struck with his maker's mark now at Windsor Castle. The Duke of York owned a set of four which were included in the sale of his silver at Christie's in 1827.
The Warwick Vase was not without its critics, however. 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. Bryun 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].