The composition for the bronzed figure of a torch-bearing and veil-draped vestal emerging from cloud-cumulae ultimately derives from the celebrated Fortuna with billowing veil executed in the late 1570s, en suite with a statue of Mercury, by Giambologna (d.1608). The Fortuna figue may also be that mistakenly described in the Coades' Italian book on sculpture as Venus entering her bath. The latter provided the inspiration for related Coade statuettes (A. Kelly, Coade Stone Interiors, Antique Collector, July 1986, p. 53, fig. 6).
In 1803, the year before the manufacture of these vestal candlesticks, Mrs Coade and her partner John Sealy executed a large scale statue of Venus (A. Kelly, Mrs. Coade's Stone, Reading, 1990, p. 132
Osberton came into the possession of the Foljambes through the marriage of Francis Ferrand Foljambe, who succeeded his uncle in 1758, and Mary Arabella (d.1790) daughter of John Thornhaugh of Osberton and his wife Arabella, sister of Sir George Savile, Bt. The present house was built circa 1805 for F.F. Foljambe by William Wilkins.