GEORGE IV AS EMPEROR

The triumphal laurel-wreathed statue depicts George IV dressed in antique attire as a victorious Roman commander in celebration of his role as 'Peace Bearer' with the instigation of Europe's Pax Romana through wide-ranging alliances. The statue is modelled on a bronze reduction of a marble statue of Julius Caesar by Nicolas Coustou, commissioned in 1696 by Louis XIV. The bronze reduction was acquired by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, who sold it to George IV in 1824 and today it is at Windsor Castle (RCIN 33469). Rundell, Bridge & Rundell made further casts of Coustou's bronze, including the present centrepiece, with the head of George IV substituted for that of the Roman emperor. The head derives from a model by the court sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, who designed independently for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell.
A similar gilt-bronze centrepiece of George IV as a Roman emperor by Royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell given by George IV to his mistress Elizabeth, Marchioness of Conyngham (1768-1860), was sold Christie’s, London, 19 November 1992, lot 114. The present bronze was acquired by John, 1st Earl of Eldon (1751-1838), Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, from Thomas Hamlet (d.1835) a leading early 19th century gentleman entrepreneur, whose Princes Street silver and jewellery emporium flourished from 1800 to the early 1830s (J. Culme, Nineteenth Century Silver, London, 1977).