Lot Essay
The male figure is derived from the famous statue of the Apollino in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The statue was recorded in 1684 as amongst those of which the French Academy had had copies made. It was widely copied in a variety of scales and a reduction of it exists alongside the Venus de Medicis on the chimney-piece of the painted room at Spencer House, London (F. Haskell & N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900, p. 146-147).
The 'bronze' figure of the young sun-deity Apollo is accompanied by an oil-bearing vestal holding a 'lamp' tazza. Amongst the most celebrated manufacturers of such figures were the Mount Street 'Petrification Manufacturer', Francis Hardenberg (d.1832), the Wigmore Street manufacturer, Humphrey Hopper (d.1834), and the Holborn firm of Benjamin and Robert Shout (fl. 1778-1823) (T. Clifford, 'The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-classical Era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 1992, pp. 39-65). She sports the attributes of Hebe, goddess of youth and cup-bearer of the gods. Her ewer was filled with ambrosia, or the nectar of the Gods, which was served at their banquet.
The 'bronze' figure of the young sun-deity Apollo is accompanied by an oil-bearing vestal holding a 'lamp' tazza. Amongst the most celebrated manufacturers of such figures were the Mount Street 'Petrification Manufacturer', Francis Hardenberg (d.1832), the Wigmore Street manufacturer, Humphrey Hopper (d.1834), and the Holborn firm of Benjamin and Robert Shout (fl. 1778-1823) (T. Clifford, 'The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-classical Era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 1992, pp. 39-65). She sports the attributes of Hebe, goddess of youth and cup-bearer of the gods. Her ewer was filled with ambrosia, or the nectar of the Gods, which was served at their banquet.