A REGENCY OCHRE-GLAZED STONEWARE TWO-HANDLED BASIN

A CONNOISSEUR'S COLLECTION It is rare indeed to find a true collection of furniture, formed within senior scholarly guidelines, where each and every piece is chosen objectively on individual merit, rather than as part of an overall decorative scheme for a particular setting. Assembled with enthusiasm and understanding under the wise guidance of George and Martin Levy of Blairman, this collection is remarkable not only for its consistant quality and depth but also for the overiding emphasis on design that is leitmotif. Indeed as many as twenty pieces of this group are directly related to a design while no less than twenty-four pieces are either firmly documented or can be confidently attributed to specific cabinet-makers. Blairman has long been respected for its keen academic interest in the Regency period and both its sponsorship of the reprinted Ackermann's Repository of Arts and its instrumental involvement in the celebrated exhibition, George Bullock Cabinet-Maker has contributed enormously to the connoisseur's knowledge of Regency taste. It is, therefore, extremely fitting that this collection should contain no less than nine pieces attributable to Bullock's hand, the largest single group of Bullock to come on the market since from Great Tew and Palmella sales, both sold by Christie's in 1987. Likewise, the craftsmen favoured by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV are all represented, ranging from Louis Le Gaigneur and Morel and Seddon, through A.W.N. Pugin and John McLean, to Vulliamy. The last addition to the collection was the superb pair of candlesticks supplied by Vulliamy to William Beckford at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire. It is characteristic of the true collector that the only regret was in not having purchased the complete set of four! Although the Regency prevailed, the collection also contains remarkable examples of late Georgian craftsmanship, from objects by Matthew Boulton and seat-furniture and musical commodes by John Linnell, to a pair of Royal jardiniéres by William Gates. This collection was attributed both to the taste of a patient connoisseur with an unerring eye and the sure advice of George and Martin Levy at Blairman. Together they formed a collection of remarkable adacemic depth and stature, representative of the principal craftsmen and designers of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. It can only be regretted that such a collecting passion was so suddenly cut short by fate

Details

A REGENCY OCHRE-GLAZED STONEWARE TWO-HANDLED BASIN
THE DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE BULLOCK

The everted rim decorated with peach berried laurel-trails within an Etruscan red border, the swollen compacted baluster body decorated with peach lines and issuing tapering handles with simulated pegs, on a domed spreading foot, possibly Staffordshire
13¼in. (33.5cm.) wide; 6in. (15cm.) high; 11½in. (29.5cm.) deep

Provenance

Designed circa 1815 for Napoleon I's use at New Longwood House, St. Helena
Supplied to Matthew Robinson Boulton (d. 1842) for Tew Park, Oxfordshire circa 1817
Thence by descent at Tew Park to Major Eustace Robb and sold by his Executors, Christie's House Sale, 27-29 May 1987, lot 692

Literature

C. Wainwright et al., George Bullock Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, no. 30
A. Kelly, 'George Bullock's Ceramics', Ars Ceramica, 1988, pl. 11-13

Lot Essay

This Grecian krater-shaped basin, en suite with a ewer, soap dish and toothbrush holder's, was designed by the sculptor/cabinet-maker George Bullock (d. 1818) for Napoleon's use at New Longwood House, St. Helena. His design for a related ewer and basin remains in the Howe Papers at the British Museum (British Library, Ad. Mss 20. 222. folio 234). The wreath of laurels, however, within its Etruscan/Pompeian red border was so redolent of the victor that it was deemed highly inappropriate decoration for a 'chamber service' commissioned by George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV for his defeated enemy. As a result of this rejection the basin forms part of one of several 'chamber services complete bordered' supplied to Matthew Robinson Boulton (d. 1842) for Tew Park, Oxfordshire. These were invoiced by Bullock in 1817 at a cost of 3 guineas each.

As the Times article of 24 October 1815 entitled 'House and Furniture for Buonaparte' revealed:-
'The table services have been provided by Mr Bullock, from the most eminent manufacturers in the Kingdom, and consist of the fairest, though not the most extravagant, specimens of our own proficiency in the various walks of mechanism and art.

As Bullock is known to have commissioned ceramics from Wedgwood, Derby and Spode, amongst other factories on the St. Helena commission, as well as holding an account with the Herculaneum Pottery in Liverpool, the making of a firm attribution for this basin remains difficult.

Further pieces from Napoleons 'Chamber Service' were acquired at Tew by the Walker Art Gallery, Merseyside.

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