Lot Essay
FROM PIRANESI TO FLAXMAN
The source for the design for these sugar vases is a Roman funerary urn in the celebrated antique sculpture collection of the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, identified by David Udy in 'Piranesi's Vasi, the English Silversmith and his Patrons', Burlington Magazine, December 1978, p. 837, fig. 55-57. Unlike the Warwick Vase, which had been popularized by Piranesi's engravings of the eighteenth century, the Lansdowne urn was reproduced directly in silver before John Duit engraved it around 1813. The design in silver is attributed to the sculptor John Flaxman, who used a variation of the urn in his tomb monument for Sir Thomas Burrell in 1796. Flaxman became Rundell's most important designer around the time the firm became the Royal Goldsmith in 1804 when Smith was running Rundell's workshop, executing the designs and models supplied by the firm in silver and silver-gilt.
FROM SCOTT AND SMITH TO PAUL STORR
The first known examples were produced by Scott and Smith probably no earlier than 1805. A set of four vases of the same year by Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith sold at Christie's, London, July 1, 1953, lot 111 from the collection of Earl Howe. A set of eight vases of this design, made for George IV as Prince of Wales at a cost of £376. 4s, is in the Royal collection, illustrated in Carlton House: The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, 1991, cat. no. 95, p. 133 and Christie's sold in New York, part of the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of Regency Silver, 20 October 1999, lot 194, another set of eight dated 1805 and 1806. Paul Storr also produced the design, manufacturing a set of four for the 1st Earl of Harewood in 1814 which was sold at Christie's, London, June 30, 1965, lot 101. Another set of four by Paul Storr of 1816/17 is illustrated in J. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver, n.d., pp. 132-35.
The source for the design for these sugar vases is a Roman funerary urn in the celebrated antique sculpture collection of the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, identified by David Udy in 'Piranesi's Vasi, the English Silversmith and his Patrons', Burlington Magazine, December 1978, p. 837, fig. 55-57. Unlike the Warwick Vase, which had been popularized by Piranesi's engravings of the eighteenth century, the Lansdowne urn was reproduced directly in silver before John Duit engraved it around 1813. The design in silver is attributed to the sculptor John Flaxman, who used a variation of the urn in his tomb monument for Sir Thomas Burrell in 1796. Flaxman became Rundell's most important designer around the time the firm became the Royal Goldsmith in 1804 when Smith was running Rundell's workshop, executing the designs and models supplied by the firm in silver and silver-gilt.
FROM SCOTT AND SMITH TO PAUL STORR
The first known examples were produced by Scott and Smith probably no earlier than 1805. A set of four vases of the same year by Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith sold at Christie's, London, July 1, 1953, lot 111 from the collection of Earl Howe. A set of eight vases of this design, made for George IV as Prince of Wales at a cost of £376. 4s, is in the Royal collection, illustrated in Carlton House: The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, 1991, cat. no. 95, p. 133 and Christie's sold in New York, part of the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of Regency Silver, 20 October 1999, lot 194, another set of eight dated 1805 and 1806. Paul Storr also produced the design, manufacturing a set of four for the 1st Earl of Harewood in 1814 which was sold at Christie's, London, June 30, 1965, lot 101. Another set of four by Paul Storr of 1816/17 is illustrated in J. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver, n.d., pp. 132-35.