BY GIOVANNI DOMENICO GIANELLI, 1807

The prototype for such Chinese figures, which were imported by East India Companies and served as ornament for mantelpiece garnitures etc., was further increased around 1800 by the Chinese embellishment of Carlton House, London and the Marine Pavilion, Brighton for George, Prince of Wales, later George IV.

These bear the 1807 patent of the Danish-born sculptor modeller Giovanni Domenico Gianelli of Cock Lane, West Smithfield, who later exhibited wax sculpture at the Royal Academy from 1809-1820. His busts of British heroes also appear on a bookcase at the Victoria & Albert Museum (D. Fitz-Gerald, 'A Sheraton designed bookcase and the Gianellis', Victoria & Albert Museum Bulletin, January 1968). These figures served as candelabrum stands, such as a pair of Gianelli's plaster figures of reclining maidens, emblematic of study, bearing his 1809 patent (J. Bourne, Lighting in the Domestic Interior, 1991, fig. 545). Similar figures, dated 1807, were sold by David Style, Esq., Wateringbury Place, Maidstone; Christie's house sale, 31 May-2 June 1978, lots 200-204). Another similar pair, also by Gianelli, was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 11 November 1971, lot 105.