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Lot Essay
This magnificent Beckford/Hamilton objet d'art was almost certainly conceived as a chivalric standing-cup by William Beckford (d.1844) of Fonthill, celebrated connoisseur and author of the French novel 'Vathek'. Beckford boasted the Roman virtue of Pietas in the honouring of his maternal Hamilton ancestors, and prided his descent from the Magna Carta barons, heroic defenders of Liberty.
This precious cup of agate marble and silver-gilt formed part of his sumptuous buffet plate, and its domed lid bears the 'Hamilton' armorial lily or Saxon cinquefoiled fleur-de-lys. A festive fruit garland, evoking the poets Arcadia or Golden Age of Peace and Plenty, wreaths its rim between ribbon-guilloches of pearl-enriched Pan reeds; and its ancient tree pillar is supported by a Grecian caryatic vestal figure in rosy coral or Corallum rubrum. This figure is likely to have been executed in Naples, which became the principal source for sculpted coral following the closure of the Sicilian Trapani workshops in the later 17th century. Garlanded vestal heads, accompany embossed cartouches that wreath its domed and altar-stepped plinth.
Beckford's daughter Susan, Duchess of Hamilton (d.1853), who bore the additional name of Euphemia in allusion to the female saint symbolised by a lily, became heiress to her father's estate. This included the Bath property, with its towered Lansdown garden banqueting villa crowned by a Grecian choragic monument renowned as the Temple of Demosthenes. Its rooms, which served in part as a Beckford museum or 'temple of the muses' for his remarkable library and art collection, were illustrated in Edmund English's Views of Lansdown Tower, Bath', 1844.
The beauty of this Renaissance cup reflects the scholarly taste of Beckford, whose advancement of the Fine Arts' even received praise from Sir John Soane (d.1832), one of the countrys premier architects. In his promotion of the arts he was brilliantly assisted by his Portuguese protégé and collector and connoisseur in his own right Chevallier Franchi.
A coral figure of Hercules was also incorporated in another of Beckfords' hardstone standing cups, whose silver-gilt mounts bear the date letter for 1820-21; it was amongst the objets d'art recorded in three still life paintings that were commissioned on her father's death in 1844 by the Duchess of Hamilton and executed by Willes Maddox (B. McLeod, 'Treasures of Englands wealthiest son', Country Life, 7 February, 2002 pp.41-44 figs. 9 and 2; and Ostergard et al. no.119). The latter, bearing the makers mark of James Aldridge (fl. 1778-?1822) is embellished with Beckford cinquefoils together with 16th century ornament derived from an engraving issued by Michel Le Blon in 1611. The present cup is likewise embellished with 16th century ornament and its domed foot appears to derive from the same engraving of the 1580s as Beckford adopted for the embellishment of a cup of Hungarian agate, that bears the mark of John Harris and is likely to have been engraved by Coulson (D. Ostergard et al., fig. 11-8; the cup is no.118).
This precious cup of agate marble and silver-gilt formed part of his sumptuous buffet plate, and its domed lid bears the 'Hamilton' armorial lily or Saxon cinquefoiled fleur-de-lys. A festive fruit garland, evoking the poets Arcadia or Golden Age of Peace and Plenty, wreaths its rim between ribbon-guilloches of pearl-enriched Pan reeds; and its ancient tree pillar is supported by a Grecian caryatic vestal figure in rosy coral or Corallum rubrum. This figure is likely to have been executed in Naples, which became the principal source for sculpted coral following the closure of the Sicilian Trapani workshops in the later 17th century. Garlanded vestal heads, accompany embossed cartouches that wreath its domed and altar-stepped plinth.
Beckford's daughter Susan, Duchess of Hamilton (d.1853), who bore the additional name of Euphemia in allusion to the female saint symbolised by a lily, became heiress to her father's estate. This included the Bath property, with its towered Lansdown garden banqueting villa crowned by a Grecian choragic monument renowned as the Temple of Demosthenes. Its rooms, which served in part as a Beckford museum or 'temple of the muses' for his remarkable library and art collection, were illustrated in Edmund English's Views of Lansdown Tower, Bath', 1844.
The beauty of this Renaissance cup reflects the scholarly taste of Beckford, whose advancement of the Fine Arts' even received praise from Sir John Soane (d.1832), one of the countrys premier architects. In his promotion of the arts he was brilliantly assisted by his Portuguese protégé and collector and connoisseur in his own right Chevallier Franchi.
A coral figure of Hercules was also incorporated in another of Beckfords' hardstone standing cups, whose silver-gilt mounts bear the date letter for 1820-21; it was amongst the objets d'art recorded in three still life paintings that were commissioned on her father's death in 1844 by the Duchess of Hamilton and executed by Willes Maddox (B. McLeod, 'Treasures of Englands wealthiest son', Country Life, 7 February, 2002 pp.41-44 figs. 9 and 2; and Ostergard et al. no.119). The latter, bearing the makers mark of James Aldridge (fl. 1778-?1822) is embellished with Beckford cinquefoils together with 16th century ornament derived from an engraving issued by Michel Le Blon in 1611. The present cup is likewise embellished with 16th century ornament and its domed foot appears to derive from the same engraving of the 1580s as Beckford adopted for the embellishment of a cup of Hungarian agate, that bears the mark of John Harris and is likely to have been engraved by Coulson (D. Ostergard et al., fig. 11-8; the cup is no.118).