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Lot Essay
The flower-vases of golden reeds incorporate sunflowered oval medallions bearing the crown-ensigned CR (Carlotta Regina) cipher of Queen Charlotte (d. 1817), wife of George III; and this is displayed alongside medallions with bas-relief floral devices of the United Kingdom. The rectangular, plinth-supported and basket-weave vases are conceived in the early l9th century French/Grecian fashion, and their tapered form corresponds to that of a pattern associated with 'chestnut' baskets (marronnières). A vase with related palm-flowered 'Apollo' griffin monopodiae, as well as some basket-weave vases were illustrated by the connoisseur Thomas Hope in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pls.34 and 6).
They bear the mark of William Burwash and this is also recorded on an 1808 cruet-stand of similar style, displaying the arms of Sir H. Featherstonhaugh (d.1846), a close friend of the George, Prince Regent, later George IV.
The Queen's passion for flowers had already been noted in 1767 by Mrs Lybbe Powys, who visited the Queen's Palace, now Buckingham Palace and wrote:- 'tho' but in March every room was full of roses, carnations, hyacinths etc, dispersed in the prettiest manner imaginable'.
These vases are recorded as containing silk flowers in 1819, and these may possibly have been the work of Queen Charlotte and her 'Ladys'. The Queen's preparations in 1793 for celebrations at Frogmore, Windsor to mark the anniversary of George III's accession, were described by Mrs Kennedy:- 'Miss Gould is Making Scarlet jeranims, in the finest Stile Miss Cheshire has also Made some Beautiful Guernsey Lillies, also some Passion Flowers. She herself had sat from five mornings, from 9 o'clock until 4. Making up Leaves' (M.R. Blacker, Flora Domestica, 2000, pp.112-113).
They bear the mark of William Burwash and this is also recorded on an 1808 cruet-stand of similar style, displaying the arms of Sir H. Featherstonhaugh (d.1846), a close friend of the George, Prince Regent, later George IV.
The Queen's passion for flowers had already been noted in 1767 by Mrs Lybbe Powys, who visited the Queen's Palace, now Buckingham Palace and wrote:- 'tho' but in March every room was full of roses, carnations, hyacinths etc, dispersed in the prettiest manner imaginable'.
These vases are recorded as containing silk flowers in 1819, and these may possibly have been the work of Queen Charlotte and her 'Ladys'. The Queen's preparations in 1793 for celebrations at Frogmore, Windsor to mark the anniversary of George III's accession, were described by Mrs Kennedy:- 'Miss Gould is Making Scarlet jeranims, in the finest Stile Miss Cheshire has also Made some Beautiful Guernsey Lillies, also some Passion Flowers. She herself had sat from five mornings, from 9 o'clock until 4. Making up Leaves' (M.R. Blacker, Flora Domestica, 2000, pp.112-113).