BY MATTHEW BOULTON

細節

A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUEJOHN 'CANDLE VASES'
By Matthew Boulton
Each with removable lid with foliate finial and domed spreading stiff- leaf-cast tiers, reversing to an acanthus-wrapped baluster nozzle with pearled and fluted spreading socle, the bluejohn ovoid body with gadrooned neck and flowerheads swagged with laurel above an acanthus cup and spirally-fluted socle and spreading square base with guilloche border, the cylindrical pedestal constructed entirely of bluejohn with egg-and-dart moulded cornice and a lion-mask swagged with laurel above two spreading tiers with guilloche and stiff-leaf borders, one marked 'VIII' and lacking one of the acanthus leaves beneath the ovoid body, the other marked 'III', very minor variations in the chasing of the acanthus border at the base of the cylindrical plinth, one acanthus leg reattached
12 in. (30.5 cm.) high (2)

來源

Bought from Norman Adams, 16 June 1970.

出版

C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev. ed., 1985, p. 474.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

拍品專文

This Boulton bluejohn garniture dates from around 1771 and comprises bacchic altar-drums with plinth-supported krater-vases festooned with 'Apollo' laurels, while their domed, reeded and palm-enriched lids conceal 'vase' candle-sockets. Their vase pattern with Grecian ribbon-fretted plinths corresponds to the 'Cleopatra vases with philosopher pedestals', illustrated in Boulton's Pattern Book 1, p. 171 (Goodison, 2002, p. 328, figs. 327 and 330).

The lion-mask pattern, featured on their laurel-festooned 'cippus' altar pedestals, derives from a French lion-hermed silver candlestick, designed in the Grecian manner. The latter, possibly acquired by Boulton during his Paris visit in 1765, inspired his own candlestick design illustrated in this Pattern Book 1, p. 41 (Goodison, 2002, fig. 133).

A pair of vases of the same pattern, and also standing on 'round steps', were acquired in 1927 by Queen Mary. Another pair, with different patterned lids, is in the Gerstenfeld collection (Goodison, 2002, pp. 297 and 298, figs. 260 and 263); a further pair was acquired by Manchester City Art Gallery in 1985 for Heaton Hall, Manchester and is illustrated in 'Country House Lighting, Exhibition Catalogue, 1992, no. 36, p. 63. A final pair, although with slightly differing finial design, was sold from the collection Esmond Bradley-Martin, Sotheby's New York, 30 October 2002, lot 176 ($196,500).