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Lot Essay
Matthew Boulton's Egyptian sphinx-supported ormolu urns reflect the George III 'French' antique fashion for decorating interiors with vase garnitures evoking the Roman columbarium and Homeric concepts of Love's sacred urns. James Stuart (d.1788), the Rome-trained artist and protégé of the Dilettanti Society was foremost in promoting the popularity of such festive altar-tripods as garnitures for chimneypieces, tables etc., through his publication of the Dionysiac temple or Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in his Antiquities of Athens (1762) and his 1759 painted apartment at Spencer House, London (see Susan Weber Soros ed., James 'Athenian' Stuart, New York 2006, p.220 fig. 5-46).
French-fashioned perfume-burners or cassolettes were noted in a letter to Boulton, written by Mrs. Montagu (d.1800) following Stuart's decoration of her London house in Hill Street "...my friends reproach me that I do not regale their noses with fine odours... The cassolettes used to make their entry with desert." (N. Goodison, Ormolu: the work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, p. 25). It would appear that Mrs Montagu lent Boulton her Parisian cassolettes, as mentioned in a letter of January 1772: "I hope you will not imagine I pretend to give Mr Boulton a pattern, an Athenian in the best age of the arts could only be worthy to furnish him with a model, but there is a prettiness of fancy in the cassolettes which improved into grace and good taste w'd render the sort of thing a beautiful addition to a table". Boulton replied "Ye present age distinguishes itself by adopting the most Elegant ornaments of the most refined Grecian artists, I am satisfy'd in conforming thereto, and humbly copying their style, and making into new combinations of old ornaments without presuming to invent new ones."
Other vase perfume-burners of this model include:
-A pair at Temple Newsam Art Gallery, Leeds, sold, anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 6 July 1967, lot 48 (illustrated in N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, 2002, p. 316, fig. 304)
-A single sold, a Lady of Title; Christie's, London, 7 July 1994, lot 28 (illustrated Goodison, op. cit., p. fig. 305)
-A single sold, the property of a Gentleman; Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 208 (with lacquered metal body; lacking swags)
-A single sold, anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 23 April 1998, lot 6 and now in a distinguished American collection
The tripods relate directly to a stand for a silver coffee pot hallmarked for 1769-70, the pattern of which Boulton received from the architect James Wyatt (d.1813), a cousin of Boulton's London agent John Wyatt (N. Goodison, Ormolu, London, 2002, p.87, fig. 53).
The urns are guarded by the herm busts of pearl-decked sphinx terminating in 'Jupiter' eagle-claws. Their pattern largely derives from marble antiquities, such as a griffin-guarded tazza illustrated in G.B. Piranesi, Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sacrofagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichiti, Rome (1778) and a sphinx-supported Grecian perfume-burner illustrated in Joseph-Marie Vien's, Suite de vases compos dans le Got antique (1760), also a source for Chelsea porcelain potpourri urns and Wedgwood and Bentley's basalt candle-vases.
The ornamental repertoire shared by Wedgwood and Boulton shows that they tapped common sources and even possibly exchanged models. The three ormolu medallions used on the vases comprise: 'a sacrifice group', 'a seated heroic figure' and 'Achilles Victorious'. These were derived from classical and Renaissance gems, fashionable in the day. The 'sacrifice group' was published by Bernard de Montfaucon in his Antiquit Explique (1764) after a rock crystal intaglio by Valerio Belli and was replicated by the contemporary modeler James Tassie in a glass-based paste. Wedgwood and Bentley included similar groups in their catalogues of 1773, 1774 and 1777. The 'heroic figure' appears in Tassie's collection as either Mars or possibly Achilles; Wedgwood and Bentley referenced the model as 'A conquering Hero, probably Perseus' or 'Diomedes or Perseus' in the 1773 catalogue. 'Achilles Victorious' (holding Victory in his left hand) also appears in the 1773 catalogue while Tassie's version shows the hero unclothed.
French-fashioned perfume-burners or cassolettes were noted in a letter to Boulton, written by Mrs. Montagu (d.1800) following Stuart's decoration of her London house in Hill Street "...my friends reproach me that I do not regale their noses with fine odours... The cassolettes used to make their entry with desert." (N. Goodison, Ormolu: the work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, p. 25). It would appear that Mrs Montagu lent Boulton her Parisian cassolettes, as mentioned in a letter of January 1772: "I hope you will not imagine I pretend to give Mr Boulton a pattern, an Athenian in the best age of the arts could only be worthy to furnish him with a model, but there is a prettiness of fancy in the cassolettes which improved into grace and good taste w'd render the sort of thing a beautiful addition to a table". Boulton replied "Ye present age distinguishes itself by adopting the most Elegant ornaments of the most refined Grecian artists, I am satisfy'd in conforming thereto, and humbly copying their style, and making into new combinations of old ornaments without presuming to invent new ones."
Other vase perfume-burners of this model include:
-A pair at Temple Newsam Art Gallery, Leeds, sold, anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 6 July 1967, lot 48 (illustrated in N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, 2002, p. 316, fig. 304)
-A single sold, a Lady of Title; Christie's, London, 7 July 1994, lot 28 (illustrated Goodison, op. cit., p. fig. 305)
-A single sold, the property of a Gentleman; Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 208 (with lacquered metal body; lacking swags)
-A single sold, anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 23 April 1998, lot 6 and now in a distinguished American collection
The tripods relate directly to a stand for a silver coffee pot hallmarked for 1769-70, the pattern of which Boulton received from the architect James Wyatt (d.1813), a cousin of Boulton's London agent John Wyatt (N. Goodison, Ormolu, London, 2002, p.87, fig. 53).
The urns are guarded by the herm busts of pearl-decked sphinx terminating in 'Jupiter' eagle-claws. Their pattern largely derives from marble antiquities, such as a griffin-guarded tazza illustrated in G.B. Piranesi, Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sacrofagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichiti, Rome (1778) and a sphinx-supported Grecian perfume-burner illustrated in Joseph-Marie Vien's, Suite de vases compos dans le Got antique (1760), also a source for Chelsea porcelain potpourri urns and Wedgwood and Bentley's basalt candle-vases.
The ornamental repertoire shared by Wedgwood and Boulton shows that they tapped common sources and even possibly exchanged models. The three ormolu medallions used on the vases comprise: 'a sacrifice group', 'a seated heroic figure' and 'Achilles Victorious'. These were derived from classical and Renaissance gems, fashionable in the day. The 'sacrifice group' was published by Bernard de Montfaucon in his Antiquit Explique (1764) after a rock crystal intaglio by Valerio Belli and was replicated by the contemporary modeler James Tassie in a glass-based paste. Wedgwood and Bentley included similar groups in their catalogues of 1773, 1774 and 1777. The 'heroic figure' appears in Tassie's collection as either Mars or possibly Achilles; Wedgwood and Bentley referenced the model as 'A conquering Hero, probably Perseus' or 'Diomedes or Perseus' in the 1773 catalogue. 'Achilles Victorious' (holding Victory in his left hand) also appears in the 1773 catalogue while Tassie's version shows the hero unclothed.