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拍品專文
TENTERDEN STREET: GEORGE BULLOCK'S ELEGANT REPOSITORY
The Roman candelabra (now missing their bronze lamps) may have formed part of the furniture designed in the French antique manner by George Bullock (d. 1818), and exhibited around 1815 at his London mansion museum in Tenterden Street. In partnership with Colonel George Fraser he had leased these premises from the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon to serve as his elegant 'Repository'.
Bullock's Long Room displayed a pair of these lamp-topped candelabra, which also featured in R. Ackermann's view of the room published in his Repository of Arts, May 1816 (P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture & Interiors, Ramsbury, 1987, p. 108, plate 85). Two were included in Christie's 2nd day's sale of Bullock's Tenterden premises held on the 4th May 1819, and titled 'Catalogue of the Superb Furniture, being the whole of the finished stock of that highly ingenious Artist Mr. George Bullock'. Each was described as:-
'A candelabrum of rose-wood, of very sumptuous Buhl manufacture, the upper part of the shaft very splendidly inlaid with brass and mounted with massive or-moulu, the lower part in compartments inlaid with brass, with arabesques of very elegant and tasteful designs, also mounted with masks and ornaments of or-moulu, 6' 9" high' (Lots 73 and 74).
They were followed by 'A pair of bronze patent lamps, with three burners mounted with masks of or-moulu' (Lot 75). All three Lots were purchased by Sir William Gordon-Cumming for Altyre, Elgin, Scotland.
Related designs appear in the Bullock Wilkinson archive, Birmingham City Museum:
1) The pattern for the pillars, as well as the 'scenic' masks correspond to Bullock's 'Design for a candelabrum' (C. Wainwright et al, George Bullock: Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, p. 75, fig. 28).
2) There is also an unpublished detail for the palm leaves and flowers. 3) A detail of the central flowered ribbon-guilloche. (ibid., p. 98, fig. 42).
4) An unpublished detail of the pilasters' hop-entwined thyrsae.
5) The thyrsic pilaster pattern also feature on an 1816 design for cabinets, and an undated design for a bookcase (ibid., p. 70, fig. 26 and p. 106, fig. 45).
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The rosewood candle stands are embellished in the 'Louis Quatorze' manner with Grecian-black ebonised wood and brass ormolu bas-reliefs and 'boulle' and 'contra-boulle' inlay. Their tapered and tazza-capped pillars are raised on Grecian-stepped tripod-altar drums. The drums are sunk with palm-flowered arabesque tablets, while similar tablets, in the tripod frieze, are accompanied by bacchante or 'scenic' mask bas-reliefs (missing), and these cap the raised pilasters, which are inlaid with hop-wreathed and palm-flowered bacchic thyrsae.
The pillar tops are wreathed by ormolu vines, while poetic laurel-wreath torus mouldings encircle their bases, which are further embellished with ormolu acanthus ribbon-guilloche incorporating palm-flowers and bacchic pines that echo the ornament beneath the tazze. Central inlaid ribbon-guilloches of flowered foliage separate the circular and octagonal sections of the pillars, which are inlaid with palm-flowers and leaves.
RELATED BULLOCK FURNITURE
The drum base features on a circular table (sold by Christopher Hodsoll, Sotheby's London, 3 May 2000, lot 139). The same flowered ribbon-guilloche features on a sofa table included in the Bullock sale of 4th May 1819 (lot 34), where it was described as an 'arabesque border of elegant design' (Wainwright et al, op. cit., p. 97-99, no. 35). It also appears on a sofa-table supplied in 1817 to Mrs Robert Ferguson in Scotland (ibid., no. 36). It appears again as a frieze of a porphyry-topped cabinet formerly at Marlborough House, in the possession of Queen Mary (sold by Her Majesty The Queen, Christie's London, 1st October 1959, lot 45; and later sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 28 February 1969, lot 144).
The same hop-wreathed thyrsus features on a marble-topped table, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (ibid., p. 111-112, no. 50); and on a bookcase (sold anonymously, Christie's London, 1st December 1977, lot 138, ibid., p. 106, no. 42). The neck-bands palm-flowered bas-reliefs feature on two 'cabinets very richly ornamented and inlaid with handsome Brass wreath moulding round top...' that were designed in 1818 for the Duke of Atholl (ibid., p. 67-71, no. 9). Another pair, identified as the torcheres sold in 1819, are now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (sold Anderson and England, Elgin, and Central Marts Ltd, Elgin, 24 August 1948; and again, anonymously, at Phillips London, 25 April 1989, lot 100 (£120,000)). This pair may equally be those identified as included in Bullock's sale by Christie's in 1819.
The Roman candelabra (now missing their bronze lamps) may have formed part of the furniture designed in the French antique manner by George Bullock (d. 1818), and exhibited around 1815 at his London mansion museum in Tenterden Street. In partnership with Colonel George Fraser he had leased these premises from the 3rd Earl of Carnarvon to serve as his elegant 'Repository'.
Bullock's Long Room displayed a pair of these lamp-topped candelabra, which also featured in R. Ackermann's view of the room published in his Repository of Arts, May 1816 (P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture & Interiors, Ramsbury, 1987, p. 108, plate 85). Two were included in Christie's 2nd day's sale of Bullock's Tenterden premises held on the 4th May 1819, and titled 'Catalogue of the Superb Furniture, being the whole of the finished stock of that highly ingenious Artist Mr. George Bullock'. Each was described as:-
'A candelabrum of rose-wood, of very sumptuous Buhl manufacture, the upper part of the shaft very splendidly inlaid with brass and mounted with massive or-moulu, the lower part in compartments inlaid with brass, with arabesques of very elegant and tasteful designs, also mounted with masks and ornaments of or-moulu, 6' 9" high' (Lots 73 and 74).
They were followed by 'A pair of bronze patent lamps, with three burners mounted with masks of or-moulu' (Lot 75). All three Lots were purchased by Sir William Gordon-Cumming for Altyre, Elgin, Scotland.
Related designs appear in the Bullock Wilkinson archive, Birmingham City Museum:
1) The pattern for the pillars, as well as the 'scenic' masks correspond to Bullock's 'Design for a candelabrum' (C. Wainwright et al, George Bullock: Cabinet-Maker, London, 1988, p. 75, fig. 28).
2) There is also an unpublished detail for the palm leaves and flowers. 3) A detail of the central flowered ribbon-guilloche. (ibid., p. 98, fig. 42).
4) An unpublished detail of the pilasters' hop-entwined thyrsae.
5) The thyrsic pilaster pattern also feature on an 1816 design for cabinets, and an undated design for a bookcase (ibid., p. 70, fig. 26 and p. 106, fig. 45).
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The rosewood candle stands are embellished in the 'Louis Quatorze' manner with Grecian-black ebonised wood and brass ormolu bas-reliefs and 'boulle' and 'contra-boulle' inlay. Their tapered and tazza-capped pillars are raised on Grecian-stepped tripod-altar drums. The drums are sunk with palm-flowered arabesque tablets, while similar tablets, in the tripod frieze, are accompanied by bacchante or 'scenic' mask bas-reliefs (missing), and these cap the raised pilasters, which are inlaid with hop-wreathed and palm-flowered bacchic thyrsae.
The pillar tops are wreathed by ormolu vines, while poetic laurel-wreath torus mouldings encircle their bases, which are further embellished with ormolu acanthus ribbon-guilloche incorporating palm-flowers and bacchic pines that echo the ornament beneath the tazze. Central inlaid ribbon-guilloches of flowered foliage separate the circular and octagonal sections of the pillars, which are inlaid with palm-flowers and leaves.
RELATED BULLOCK FURNITURE
The drum base features on a circular table (sold by Christopher Hodsoll, Sotheby's London, 3 May 2000, lot 139). The same flowered ribbon-guilloche features on a sofa table included in the Bullock sale of 4th May 1819 (lot 34), where it was described as an 'arabesque border of elegant design' (Wainwright et al, op. cit., p. 97-99, no. 35). It also appears on a sofa-table supplied in 1817 to Mrs Robert Ferguson in Scotland (ibid., no. 36). It appears again as a frieze of a porphyry-topped cabinet formerly at Marlborough House, in the possession of Queen Mary (sold by Her Majesty The Queen, Christie's London, 1st October 1959, lot 45; and later sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 28 February 1969, lot 144).
The same hop-wreathed thyrsus features on a marble-topped table, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (ibid., p. 111-112, no. 50); and on a bookcase (sold anonymously, Christie's London, 1st December 1977, lot 138, ibid., p. 106, no. 42). The neck-bands palm-flowered bas-reliefs feature on two 'cabinets very richly ornamented and inlaid with handsome Brass wreath moulding round top...' that were designed in 1818 for the Duke of Atholl (ibid., p. 67-71, no. 9). Another pair, identified as the torcheres sold in 1819, are now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (sold Anderson and England, Elgin, and Central Marts Ltd, Elgin, 24 August 1948; and again, anonymously, at Phillips London, 25 April 1989, lot 100 (£120,000)). This pair may equally be those identified as included in Bullock's sale by Christie's in 1819.