In June 1805, three months before his younger brother George Bullock opened the Grecian Rooms at 48 Church Street, Liverpool, William Bullock announced the opening of his Egyptian Hall in Gore's General Advertiser, as W. Bullock, Jeweller, Silversmith and China man, at the Museum and Bronze figure Manufactory, Church-Street, Liverpool, advertising a new assortment of every article in the Bronze Figure and Ornamental Business

William Bullock's patented design of 1805 for a lidded basalt urn with panther-mask handle-supports and Egyptian-style winged Medusa-mask embellishments, standing on tripod, altar plinth with panther feet and bacchic mask embellishments, reflects the antique style promoted by Thomas Hope's Duchess Street Mansion Museum in the early 19th century. The masks are taken from the comic and tragic masks published by Thomas Hope in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807, pl. 37. The signature on this basalt urn enables the bronze lamps of this model (lot 4) to be firmly attributed to William Bullock. In addition, other items with identical bases, such as a Regency clock, formerly in the collection of Lord Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, Perthshire, sold in these Rooms 6 July 1989, lot 118, and a pair of candelabra sold in these Rooms 16 November 1989, lot 9, which had previously been attributed to George Bullock, may now be attributed to William Bullock.

This urn, apparently made from the same material as the ceramic ornamental armour supplied by George Bullock to Cholmondeley Castle, was no doubt manufactured at the Liverpool Herculaneum pottery, which had been founded in 1796.

In 1812, William Bullock opened his celebrated Egyptian Hall Museum in Piccadilly, London, where he sold both bronze and basalt vases.
We are grateful to Timothy Clifford and to Miss Lucy Wood for their help in preparing this catalogue entry