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Lot Essay
The candelabra are designed in the late 18th century 'Roman' fashion with crystal fountains evoking the poetic concept of triumphal festivities attended by Venus and the sun-deity Apollo. Recalling the 'fountain' symbol of Venus as Nature deity, tiers of faceted drops spill from golden reeds that wreath central jets, which are pine-tipped as bacchic thyrsae. Framed by the vase-capped candle-branches they issue from wine-tazzae, whose Grecian-stepped 'altar' pedestals are wreathed by golden pearled ribbon-guilloches and represent the domed 'museum' temples of the artistic muses protected by Apollo.
Martin Mortimer (ibid.) has identified this distinctive arm pattern with short inner curve and extended outer curve as unique to the oeuvre of Messrs. Parker and Perry. Founded by William Parker (d.1784), the business flourished and in 1817 his son finally entered into formal partnership with the Perry family (they eventually merged to become Perry & Co. in 1820). Messrs. Parker and Perry enjoyed the patronage of King and Court, ranging from George, Prince of Wales to William Beckford; indeed in George Perry's own words of 1835 he boasted We trust that our having made the greater part of the lustres for the late King, and our being now employed in making those for the new Palace of his present Majesty (William IV), will be some guarantee for the character of our Manufacture. Amongst the best documented Parker commissions is that of the Dukes of Devonshire for both Chatsworth, circa 1782-3, and Devonshire House, London in the 1820's and 1830's.
Such Arcadian reeds and pineapple-finial appear on contemporary wall-lights also given to Parker, probably for export to India, in the Winterthur Museum, Delaware (M. Mortimer, ibid., pls. 70 and 69 and colour pl.9), whilst similarly tiered reeds feature on a chandelier in the Royal Crescent, Bath, whose design relates to that of a pattern issued in the late 1790s by George Panton & Co, of New Street Square, London.
Related pairs of this tempietto model include a pair wth further splayed foliate feet, sold anonymously at Parke Bernet, New York, 28 April 1962, lot 510; another pair sold anonymously in these Rooms, 3 June 1983, lot 17; and a final pair, possibly the same as above and now in an English Private Collection, formerly with Partridge Fine Arts, London.
Martin Mortimer (ibid.) has identified this distinctive arm pattern with short inner curve and extended outer curve as unique to the oeuvre of Messrs. Parker and Perry. Founded by William Parker (d.1784), the business flourished and in 1817 his son finally entered into formal partnership with the Perry family (they eventually merged to become Perry & Co. in 1820). Messrs. Parker and Perry enjoyed the patronage of King and Court, ranging from George, Prince of Wales to William Beckford; indeed in George Perry's own words of 1835 he boasted We trust that our having made the greater part of the lustres for the late King, and our being now employed in making those for the new Palace of his present Majesty (William IV), will be some guarantee for the character of our Manufacture. Amongst the best documented Parker commissions is that of the Dukes of Devonshire for both Chatsworth, circa 1782-3, and Devonshire House, London in the 1820's and 1830's.
Such Arcadian reeds and pineapple-finial appear on contemporary wall-lights also given to Parker, probably for export to India, in the Winterthur Museum, Delaware (M. Mortimer, ibid., pls. 70 and 69 and colour pl.9), whilst similarly tiered reeds feature on a chandelier in the Royal Crescent, Bath, whose design relates to that of a pattern issued in the late 1790s by George Panton & Co, of New Street Square, London.
Related pairs of this tempietto model include a pair wth further splayed foliate feet, sold anonymously at Parke Bernet, New York, 28 April 1962, lot 510; another pair sold anonymously in these Rooms, 3 June 1983, lot 17; and a final pair, possibly the same as above and now in an English Private Collection, formerly with Partridge Fine Arts, London.