MARK OF LOUISA COURTAULD AND GEORGE COWLES, LONDON, 1771

LORD SCARSDALE'S KEDLESTON HALL
These caddies were commissioned by Lord Scarsdale, for his Derbyshire seat Kedleston Hall, which he inherited in 1758, however, he had been planning its aggrandizement since his marriage eight years earlier. The style of theese caddies reflects his passion for 'the antique', aptly demonstrated by a poem he recorded in his note-book, 'Grant me ye Gods, a pleasant seat, in attick elegance made neat'. His philosophy greatly favoured the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome as inspiration for all elements of the house. Fittings and furnishings should also all be 'enriched with decent ornament'.

Whilst he was to employ James Paine (1717-1789) as his architect, he continually sought advice from others such as Matthew Brettingham (d.1769), surveyor at Holkham Hall, Norfolk for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (d.1759), acknowledged as England's 'Apollo of the Arts'. Sir Nathaniel was also an early patron of James Stuart (1713-1788), following the latter's return from studies in Greece and Italy; in 1757 the 'Great Athenian' provided designs for sideboard embellishments, such as a huge marble wine-cistern. However, it would be Robert Adam (1728-1799), who would complete and furnish the banqueting hall, dining room and other State rooms. His elegant sideboard drew admiration in 1766 from the formidable Duchess of Northumberland for its 'vast quantity of handsome plate... which has a mightly pretty effect'. It is possible Adam influenced the design of these caddies, which take the form of Roman cinerary urns.

Louisa Courtauld and George Cowles also supplied Lord Scasdale with a set of condiment urns in 1771. Each takes the form of a Greek Lebes Gamikos vases in the celebrated collection of Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), published in 1766 by Pierre François Hugues d'Hancarville in Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Honorable William Hamilton. These highly 'antique' style urns, made the same year as these caddies, are identical in form, but not in decoration, to a set made by Courtauld and Cowles for Charles Birch (d.1780), which are included in the present sale, lot 71.