拍品专文
The vigilant torch-bearing chimera, formed as a bacchic goat-horned and lioned-headed griffin that was sacred to the sun-god Apollo and associated with fire, derives from a drawing of a marble antiquity made in Rome in the mid-1790s by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham (d. 1842). The 'Antique Chimera in basso relievo of white marble' was discovered during his researches for appropriate ornament for the decoration of George, Prince of Wales's palace of Carlton House in London. The chimera was engraved for Tathem's Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Sculpture, 1798. The candlesticks' statuary marble pedestals, on black marble plinths, are embellished in the French manner with ormolu bas-reliefs of a griffin-guarded bacchic krater-vase and triumphal eagle-borne laurel-wreaths.
The model for the bronze griffin with golden torch was patented in 1809 by Benjamin Vulliamy (d. 1821) and his son Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (d. 1854) of 74 Pall Mall. They were clockmakers to King George III and the latter was to earn the epithet as 'Furniture man' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. A pair of griffins without pedestals, was sold in these Rooms, 7 July 1988, lot 8.
The ormolu eagle reliefs also featured on the inkstand that the Vulliamys manufactured in 1809-10 for the Prince of Wales. They were invoiced as part of the 'chased Ornaments designed on purpose from the Antique'. Some of these eagle reliefs were cast from the 'Model of a little Eagle for pannel reverse' executed by the sculptor Smith and were intended to accompany those supplied through the porcelain-dealer Robert Fogg by P.M. Delafontaine (d. 1860), of the Parisian family of bronze-founders. The griffin relief also featured on Vulliamy clocks and was manufactured for them by Messrs. Barnett and Weston in 1821 (see: G. de Bellaigue, 'The Vulliamys and France', Furniture History, 1967, pp. 45-53 and pl. 14a)
The model for the bronze griffin with golden torch was patented in 1809 by Benjamin Vulliamy (d. 1821) and his son Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (d. 1854) of 74 Pall Mall. They were clockmakers to King George III and the latter was to earn the epithet as 'Furniture man' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV. A pair of griffins without pedestals, was sold in these Rooms, 7 July 1988, lot 8.
The ormolu eagle reliefs also featured on the inkstand that the Vulliamys manufactured in 1809-10 for the Prince of Wales. They were invoiced as part of the 'chased Ornaments designed on purpose from the Antique'. Some of these eagle reliefs were cast from the 'Model of a little Eagle for pannel reverse' executed by the sculptor Smith and were intended to accompany those supplied through the porcelain-dealer Robert Fogg by P.M. Delafontaine (d. 1860), of the Parisian family of bronze-founders. The griffin relief also featured on Vulliamy clocks and was manufactured for them by Messrs. Barnett and Weston in 1821 (see: G. de Bellaigue, 'The Vulliamys and France', Furniture History, 1967, pp. 45-53 and pl. 14a)