ATTRIBUTED TO PARKER AND PERRY, CIRCA 1785, SOME ASSOCIATED ELEMENTS

Details

A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-GLASS EIGHT-LIGHT CHANDELIER
ATTRIBUTED TO PARKER AND PERRY, CIRCA 1785, SOME ASSOCIATED ELEMENTS
The domed corona above an urn-form stem cut with spiral flutes and with foliate compartmented ormolu band, the similarly mounted bowl issuing double-scroll arms over a domed lower element and faceted ball, hung throughout with swags and pendant prisms, electrified; the lower canopy and pendant 18th century and associated by Ronald Phillips
53 in. high (134.6 cm.), 30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) diameter

Provenance

The Collection of S. Eckman, Jr. Esq., C.B.E., The Old Rectory, Little Bookham and 1, Wilton Crescent, London;
Until sold, Sotheby's, London, 6 October 1967, lot 58 (to Norman Adams).
With Norman Adams, London
Acquired from the above in 1977, and in a Private London Collection, until sold, '50 Years of Collecting: The Decorative Arts of Georgian England'; Christie's, London, 14 May 2003, lot 261.
A Private U.S. Collection; Christie's, New York, 25 April 2008, lot 40.
With Ronald Phillips, London.
Acquired by Irene Roosevelt Aitken from the above (via Mallett) in 2013.

Literature

C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev. edn., 1985, pg. 473 (shown before the modifications).
Ronald Phillips, Catalogue, 2008, frontispiece and pp. 252-3.
Ronald Phillips, Catalogue, 2009, frontispiece and p. 114, cat. 59.
Ronald Phillips, Catalogue, 2012, pp. 64 and 146.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Elizabeth Seigel Vice President, Specialist, Head of Private and Iconic Collections

eseigel@christies.com +1 212 484 4812

Lot Essay

This distinctive arm pattern, with double-curved candle-arm and scalloped nozzle, has been identified by Martin Mortimer as characteristic of the oeuvre of Messrs. Parker and Perry (The English Glass Chandelier, Woodbridge, 2000, pp. 94-110). Founded by William Parker (d. 1784), the business flourished and in 1817 his son entered into a formal partnership with the Perry family (they eventually merged to become Perry & Co. in 1820). Messrs. Parker and Perry enjoyed the patronage of King and Court, ranging from George, Prince-of-Wales to William Beckford; indeed in George Perry's own words of 1835 he boasted 'We trust that our having made the greater part of the lustres for the late King, and our being now employed in making those for the new Palace of his present Majesty [William IV], will be some guarantee for the character of our Manufacture'. Among the best documented Parker commissions is that of the Dukes of Devonshire for Chatsworth, circa 1782-3, and Devonshire House, London in the 1820's and 1830's.

A virtually identical eight-light chandelier also with rich ormolu bands around the vase and bowl hangs in the Green Drawing Room at Clandon Park, Surrey. Another more elaborate twenty-light example was originally supplied to the Earl of Lincoln for Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire and subsequently owned by Nancy Lancaster in her homes at Kelmarsh Hall and Haseley Court (ibid., p.102, pl. 48), while a directly comparable chandelier is in the Winterthur Museum (ibid., col. pls. 10-11). A further example, reputedly made for the Russian market and also subsequently bought by Nancy Lancaster for Ditchley Park, was sold by the Administrators of Polly Peck International, Phillips London, 12 February 1991, lot 137 (£126,500). A further comparable example with 'gilt furniture' [ormolu bands] was with Hotspur in London is illustrated on the cover of Mortimer's book and on p. 17, col. pl. 8. This is possibly the same as an almost identical example illustrated in the Grosvenor House handbook with Hotspur, 1996 (p. 31).

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