A SET OF THREE REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED COPPER HOT WATER URNS, each with removable stepped domed lid surmounted by a dolphin finial upon a Greek key fret, enclosing a central heating filament, the foliate-cast frieze above a tapering body mounted with mermaid handles bearing scallop-shells, the reeded top with urn finial and shaped lever with ivory finial, the whole supported upon twin scrolled dolphin supports resting upon a chamfered rectangular platform with central conch shell, upon hairy claw and ball feet, one handle and the rim of one heating filament lacking

Lots 62 - 66 It seems most probable that the following five lots were almost certainly acquired by George Byng (d. 1847) for the enlarged State Rooms at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire. Designed circa 1754 by Isaac Ware (d. 1766) for the unfortunate victim of 'Judicial murder' Admiral John Byng (d. 1757), Wrotham was inherited by the 'neither learned, eloquent or profound' (Gentleman's Magazine, 1847, p. 309) George Byng, on the death of his father in 1789. This harsh dismissal of the Father of the House and Whig Member of Parliament for Middlesex, a tenure which he held for fifty-six years, does not fairly reflect this connoisseur's broad, though selective taste. Following the 1811 improvements, whereby the wings flanking Ware's central block were raised to provide further State Rooms, Byng proceeded to enrich the furnishings of the house in the French taste. The remarkable picture collection clearly reveals that Byng was a connoisseur of considerable merit and this was reflected in the furnishings acquired by him for Wrotham up until his death in 1847 at such great sales as Wanstead, Essex in 1822 and the Collection of the Duke of York (d. 1827), sold in these Rooms, 5-8 April 1827 However it is certainly possible that some of these pieces may already have entered the Strafford Collection through the marriage of Florence Miles (d. 1862) of Leigh Court, Bristol, to Edmund, later 5th Earl of Strafford (d. 1918). The 'very wealthy merchant and manufacturer' Philip John Miles (d. 1845) commissioned Thomas Hope circa 1814 to design Leight Court in the French Grecian taste. This he consequently furnished with a juxtaposition of 'fashionable' Regency furniture and Georgian giltwood furniture (such as the pair of chairs sold in these Rooms, 19 November 1992, lot 59), and these lots certainly correspond to his 'antiquarian' tastes

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These 'sarcophagi' cisterns, for sideboard-tables, are designed in the early 19th century 'antique' manner, with laurel-wreathed siren 'herms' supporting shell-enriched handles. Embowed dolphins serve as feet and finials, framed within a Grecian-ribbon fret, while shells, like aquatic trophies, embellish the plinths, whose lion-feet, like the dolphins, were associated with festive bacchic ornament

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