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Lot Essay
The tray-galleried stands for candelabra or vases, possibly intended to accompany a sideboard-table, have acanthus-wrapped 'claws', with voluted trusses in the George II picturesque fashion. The pillars are spiral-fluted above baluster urns wreathed in palms and acanthus.
These torcheres are the subject of a letter written to the purchaser by R. W. Symonds: 'I have spoken again to Mr. Brown of Harris & Sons and, in order to meet you, he has very reluctantly agreed to reduce the price of the candle stands by another £25, making them £775.
From my conversation with Mr. Brown I am quite certain that this is their lowest price. As I have told you I do not think they are expensive at £800, for a pair of exactly the same design was purchased by Samuel Messer for £750 and that was over two years ago. I am perfectly certain that if another pair turns up in the market they will easily find a buyer at an ever higher price, for there is no question whatsoever that trade in old English furniture is very good indeed at the present moment and nothing is so saleable as a pair of candlestands. You and ... should be pleased that values have risen so much for if you could buy a pair of candle stands for £400 your collection would not be worth what it is today.'
Similar torcheres include a pair formerly in the collection of Sir Edward J. Dean Paul, Bt., sold by Leopold Hirsch, Christie's, London, 7 May 1934, lot 50; the pair mentioned above, formerly in the collection of the Viscounts Ullswater, sold from the collection of the late Samuel Messer, Christie's, London, 5 December 1991, lot 69 (£99,000 including premium); a pair sold by S. B. Joel, Christie's, London, 29-30 May 1935, lot 128; a matched pair formerly in the James Thursby Pelham Collection, illustrated in O. Brackett, An Encyclopaedia of English Furniture, London, 1927, p. 227; a pair sold from the collection of H. J. Joel, Childwick Bury, Hertfordshire, Christie's house sale, 15 May 1978, lot 126.
These torcheres are the subject of a letter written to the purchaser by R. W. Symonds: 'I have spoken again to Mr. Brown of Harris & Sons and, in order to meet you, he has very reluctantly agreed to reduce the price of the candle stands by another £25, making them £775.
From my conversation with Mr. Brown I am quite certain that this is their lowest price. As I have told you I do not think they are expensive at £800, for a pair of exactly the same design was purchased by Samuel Messer for £750 and that was over two years ago. I am perfectly certain that if another pair turns up in the market they will easily find a buyer at an ever higher price, for there is no question whatsoever that trade in old English furniture is very good indeed at the present moment and nothing is so saleable as a pair of candlestands. You and ... should be pleased that values have risen so much for if you could buy a pair of candle stands for £400 your collection would not be worth what it is today.'
Similar torcheres include a pair formerly in the collection of Sir Edward J. Dean Paul, Bt., sold by Leopold Hirsch, Christie's, London, 7 May 1934, lot 50; the pair mentioned above, formerly in the collection of the Viscounts Ullswater, sold from the collection of the late Samuel Messer, Christie's, London, 5 December 1991, lot 69 (£99,000 including premium); a pair sold by S. B. Joel, Christie's, London, 29-30 May 1935, lot 128; a matched pair formerly in the James Thursby Pelham Collection, illustrated in O. Brackett, An Encyclopaedia of English Furniture, London, 1927, p. 227; a pair sold from the collection of H. J. Joel, Childwick Bury, Hertfordshire, Christie's house sale, 15 May 1978, lot 126.