The design for these trussed-pedestals for vases or candelabra, with their bust of Bacchic youths bearing Ionic capitals, was invented by the architect William Kent (d.1748) after the manner of Inigo Jones. A pair designed by Kent for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington's villa at Chiswick, was executed in 1735 for the Countess' apartment by John Boson (d.1743). A pair of similar pedestals in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.47-1962) are discussed in C. Wilk, Western Furniture, London, 1996, p. 88.

THE GILDING

The decoration on the pair of torchères has been tested by University College London. Four samples of gilding were taken, two from each torchère. All of the samples show that the present gilding is not original. One sample showed traces of an earlier gilding scheme, but this does not apppear to be the original decoration, as there is at least one white paint layer below it. The other three samples had no underlying gilt, but there were up to three layers of lead white paint.
The lowest layer of white consists of a priming, or undercoat, containing chalk as well as lead white, and a top coat of pure lead white. Because of this undercoat one can be reasonably confident that one is looking at the original paint. It would appear that white was used in the original decoration, and was repeated on at least two of the occasions when the objects were restored.