A PAIR OF NORTH EUROPEAN POLYCHROME-PAINTED VASES

EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF NORTH EUROPEAN POLYCHROME-PAINTED VASES
Early 18th Century
Each depicting scenes of gods and goddesses with a trellis and geometric background, the shaped spout above a spreading moulded neck and tapering body and gadrooned and waisted base, refreshments to the decoration, both with paper label to the underside, 'OLANTIGH TOWERS THE PROPERTY OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE LATE J.S.W.S. ERLE DRAX NO. 286'
15¾ in. (38.5 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

J.S.W.S. Erle Drax, Esq. (d.1887), Olantigh Towers, Kent, sold circa 1903.
Anonymous sale, Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1993, lot 59.

Literature

C. Hussey, 'Olantigh-II', Country Life, 31 July 1969, pp. 284, fig. 8 (one of the vases is visible in a photograph taken of the Second Gallery circa 1870).

Lot Essay

John Samuel Wanley Erle-Drax-Grosvenor (d.1887) was an eccentic politician, who furnished the vast galleries of Olantigh in a truly eclectic fashion combining objects of widely different styles. Shortly after his death the house was badly damaged by fire and the contents were dispersed.

The vases, with gadrooned bowls in the manner of antique wine-kraters, are japanned in black and gilt with flowered trellis and laurel-framed cartouches enclosing polychromed vignettes in the French 'picturesque' manner. Love trophies with Venus's doves and Cupid's weapons, accompany mythological scenes with Cupid attending a couple at Hymen's altar.
Related urns and tea-caddies dating from the 1760s are discussed in W. John and A. Simcox, Pontypool and Usk Japanned Wares, Bath, 1953, frontispiece, figs. 11B, 19A.

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