Lot Essay
The sideboard vases, of bacchic wine-krater form with pineapple-like thyrsic finials, are designed in the George III antique fashion popular around 1800. The use of the vases 'to hold water for the use of the butler, or iced water for drinking' is discussed in Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788 (pls. 35 and 36).
A pattern for a Roman-medallioned pedestal with reeded vase featured in the Strand cabinet-maker Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775 (pl. 34 fig.129). The present urn pattern relates to one illustrated in Gillows Estimate Sketch Book in 1788 and 1792 (L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 190).
A pattern for a Roman-medallioned pedestal with reeded vase featured in the Strand cabinet-maker Thomas Malton's Compleat Treatise on Perspective, 1775 (pl. 34 fig.129). The present urn pattern relates to one illustrated in Gillows Estimate Sketch Book in 1788 and 1792 (L. Boynton (ed.), Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, fig. 190).