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Lot Essay
This pair of giltwood torchères is inspired by designs for stands by Daniel Marot (1661–1752), an architect, furniture designer and engraver at the forefront of the classicising late baroque (illustrated (E. Wasmuth, Das Ornamentwerk des Daniel Marot, Berlin 1892, p. 170; p. 165). Marot introduced this ‘Louis XIV’ court style to the Dutch Stadthouder, later William III of England, and in 1694, travelled to London where he was appointed architect and Master of Works to the King. The influence of continental craftsmen can be seen in the work of James Moore the elder (d.1726). Moore was influenced by contemporary designs from France, including those of the Fontainebleau school, and Jean Le Pautre (illustrated), disseminated through works such as Marot's Nouveau Livre d'Orfeverie, 1703, which popularised designs for silver furniture including candelabras of a similar design to the lot offered here, and by the work of the Pelletier family (T. Murdoch, 'Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726 - Part I', The Burlington Magazine, November 1997, p. 738, fig. 11). A gilt gesso commode or clothes chest of circa 1720 is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and attributed to Moore. It is inspired by the large chests designed by André-Charles Boulle and Jean Berain around 1700 (see A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p.95, pl. 3.3). A gilt gesso table made for the 4th Earl of Arundell and his wife Eleanor (d.1728) is of similar character, displaying `Indian' masks that were employed by Boulle, Berain and Le Pautre and cuffed hairy paw feet (ibid. p.212, pl. 2.23).
A superb set of giltwood furniture including chairs and a pair of side tables was supplied to Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, for the Saloon or Drawing Room at Stowe, Bucks around 1730 - 40 (ibid. p.181, pl. 4.75 and p.214, pl. 5.28). These were formerly attributed to James Moore but must have been supplied by another maker since Moore died in 1726. They too feature acanthus-wrapped legs and hairy lion paw feet with a distinct cuff. Bowett notes that by 1740 the same basic repertoire of late baroque and neo-Palladian motifs were in common use; Batty Langley who published his Workman's Treasury of Designs in 1740 even reverted to a design by Le Pautre, first published in 1700.
Moore's successor was Benjamin Goodison, who was first mentioned in 1719 in a transaction between Moore and the Duchess of Marlborough. Goodison may, at this time, have been apprenticed to Moore, but by 1725 he had established his own business in Long Acre, London. In 1729, he supplied a lantern to Hampton Court costing £138. Thereafter, his name appears regularly in the Royal accounts, in 1732-33, he supplied a set of four giltwood stands in the form of female terms, circa 1732-33, listed in the Great Wardrobe accounts as costing £42. Goodison has also been suggested as supplying to Castle Howard a pair of stands with carved giltwood terms which support a pair of magnificent 17th century Roman pietre dure cabinets, now in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge (discussed in T. Knox, ‘From Castle Howard to Cambridge’, The Furniture History Society Newsletter, May 2017, pp. 2-10).
A superb set of giltwood furniture including chairs and a pair of side tables was supplied to Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, for the Saloon or Drawing Room at Stowe, Bucks around 1730 - 40 (ibid. p.181, pl. 4.75 and p.214, pl. 5.28). These were formerly attributed to James Moore but must have been supplied by another maker since Moore died in 1726. They too feature acanthus-wrapped legs and hairy lion paw feet with a distinct cuff. Bowett notes that by 1740 the same basic repertoire of late baroque and neo-Palladian motifs were in common use; Batty Langley who published his Workman's Treasury of Designs in 1740 even reverted to a design by Le Pautre, first published in 1700.
Moore's successor was Benjamin Goodison, who was first mentioned in 1719 in a transaction between Moore and the Duchess of Marlborough. Goodison may, at this time, have been apprenticed to Moore, but by 1725 he had established his own business in Long Acre, London. In 1729, he supplied a lantern to Hampton Court costing £138. Thereafter, his name appears regularly in the Royal accounts, in 1732-33, he supplied a set of four giltwood stands in the form of female terms, circa 1732-33, listed in the Great Wardrobe accounts as costing £42. Goodison has also been suggested as supplying to Castle Howard a pair of stands with carved giltwood terms which support a pair of magnificent 17th century Roman pietre dure cabinets, now in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge (discussed in T. Knox, ‘From Castle Howard to Cambridge’, The Furniture History Society Newsletter, May 2017, pp. 2-10).