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Lot Essay
This pair of ormolu candelabra were conceived by the architect Robert Adam (d.1792) for execution in gilded wood for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the mid 1760s. Adam illustrated his 'Vase with Branches for three Candles' in The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, vol. I, no. I, 1773, pl. VIII, and noted it as having been first executed in ormolu for Sir Lawrence Dundas (E.Harris, Furniture of Robert Adam, London, 1963, fig.135).
Adam provided designs for the furnishing of Sir Lawrence's Arlington Street house, and a cost of £2.0.0. is noted for the years 1763-66 for a 'design of a Vase candlestick'. These are probably the '6 Brass Girandoles with leather cases' listed in the Front Room in the 1768 inventory of furniture at Arlington Street, and may be the same ones which Samuel Norman, the Soho carver and gilder, noted as 'cleaning, preparing & new gilding in 1763, though this would clearly have been relatively soon after they were supplied. Further lamps of the same model may have been supplied for Arlington Street for the inventory lists '4 small Girandoles with Leather Covers' in the Gallery, '4 lamps with brass brackets' on the Great Stairs and '6 Lamps with leather covers' in the passage from the Porter's hall (see A.Coleridge, 'Sir Lawrence Dundas and Chippendale', Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI September 1967, pp. 193-194, fig.9). A pair of these Dundas candelabra were exhibited at Christie's, London, Treasures of the North, 13 January - 13 February 2000.
Related candelabra designed by James Stuart were almost certainly supplied by Diederich-Nicolaus Anderson circa 1758-65 to John Spencer, later 1st Earl Spencer, for nearby Spencer House. Anderson (d.1767) was the leading purveyor of objects in ormolu and gilt-bronze before Matthew Boulton began ormolu production at Soho, Birmingham in
1768.
The present pair of candelabra appear to have been identical to the Dundas set. While Adam's design incorporated a central nozzle with scrolled tendrils linking the centre and outer branches, and three scrolled lion-paw feet, in the present lot all of these have been removed while the centre finial and drip pans have been added. It was in this form that they were sold in 1963 for £520.
Adam provided designs for the furnishing of Sir Lawrence's Arlington Street house, and a cost of £2.0.0. is noted for the years 1763-66 for a 'design of a Vase candlestick'. These are probably the '6 Brass Girandoles with leather cases' listed in the Front Room in the 1768 inventory of furniture at Arlington Street, and may be the same ones which Samuel Norman, the Soho carver and gilder, noted as 'cleaning, preparing & new gilding in 1763, though this would clearly have been relatively soon after they were supplied. Further lamps of the same model may have been supplied for Arlington Street for the inventory lists '4 small Girandoles with Leather Covers' in the Gallery, '4 lamps with brass brackets' on the Great Stairs and '6 Lamps with leather covers' in the passage from the Porter's hall (see A.Coleridge, 'Sir Lawrence Dundas and Chippendale', Apollo, Vol. LXXXVI September 1967, pp. 193-194, fig.9). A pair of these Dundas candelabra were exhibited at Christie's, London, Treasures of the North, 13 January - 13 February 2000.
Related candelabra designed by James Stuart were almost certainly supplied by Diederich-Nicolaus Anderson circa 1758-65 to John Spencer, later 1st Earl Spencer, for nearby Spencer House. Anderson (d.1767) was the leading purveyor of objects in ormolu and gilt-bronze before Matthew Boulton began ormolu production at Soho, Birmingham in
1768.
The present pair of candelabra appear to have been identical to the Dundas set. While Adam's design incorporated a central nozzle with scrolled tendrils linking the centre and outer branches, and three scrolled lion-paw feet, in the present lot all of these have been removed while the centre finial and drip pans have been added. It was in this form that they were sold in 1963 for £520.