OF GEORGE III STYLE, 19TH CENTURY

The design for these torcheres bears comparison with a pair made in padouk which were formerly in the collection of the Birmingham industrialist A.C.J Wall, and which were sold twice at Christie’s, firstly in London by a descendant, 23 April 1998, lot 215 (£34,500 including premium), and again in New York, 20 May 2014, lot 32 ($21,250 inc’ prem’). The pattern for the upper part of the torchere relates to the pair supplied by Chippendale in 1758 to Blair Castle, Perthshire, and four more made by the Edinburgh wright, John Thompson in 1760 (illustrated in C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, Leeds, 1978, vol. II, p. 207, fig. 378), while the tripod base shows similarities with Chippendale’s 1772 designs for a tea table for Harewood House, Yorkshire; the tables were subsequently made by the local joiner and carver to Chippendale’s designs ( ibid. pp. 254-255, figs. 464 and 467). The white and green-japanned decoration, which appears to be the only layer of paint, clearly also owes a debt to Chippendale who supplied furniture in the same colours for Paxton House, Berwickshire in 1774, and for David Garrick’s Hampton villa in 1775.