CIRCA 1750

Details

A SET OF FOUR GEORGE II ORMOLU TWO-LIGHT WALL LIGHTS
CIRCA 1750
Each with pierced foliate backplate and socket issuing two twisting foliate-wrapped candle-branches with foliate drip-pans and nozzles
14 in. (35.5 cm.) high (4)

Provenance

Almost certainly supplied to George, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (1697-1764) for Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire and by descent.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The French-fashioned wall lights (luminaire d'appliques), are flowered, serpentined and asymmetrically-scrolled in the mid-18th century 'picturesque' or 'India' fashion. Their reed-gadrooned 'krater' candle-vases and foliated tazze are supported on bifurcated tree-branches that attach to the sockets of richly sculpted tablets. The latter with their conjoined, flowered and berried branches twisting in two directions correspond to a pattern (no. 1436) in an eighteenth century Birmingham brass manufacturer's book; while the vases and tazze correspond to yet another pattern (no. 1460) (T. R. Crom, An Eighteenth Century English Brass Hardware Catalogue, Florida, 1994, pl. IV no. 1436 ; and pl. VII no. 1460).

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