Summary

Candle-vase, fluorspar and turtleshell, with gilt-bronze mounts, made by the workshop of Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) and John Fothergill (1728-1782), after a design by Sir William Chambers (1722-96), Birmingham, England, about 1770-71.

Full description

An ormolu mounted blue john and tortoiseshell ‘King’s’ candelabrum by Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) and John Fothergill (1728-1782), after a design by Sir William Chambers (1722-96), circa 1770-1771, the removeable cover with a beaded pineapple finial above a pierced entrelac neck and baluster body with twin caryatids each supporting three foliate cast candlearms suspending ribbon-tied swags of oak leaves and acorns draped on a patera above a waisted socle, the stepped tortoiseshell veneered base with lion mask ring handles above a Greek key border, the fluted feet surmounted by a patera. Comparative Literature: Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, pp. 77-82 and pp. 336-342, plate 42, p. 82, plate 43, p. 82, plate 124, p.183, plate 160, p. 209 plate 183, p. 231, plate 244, p. 288, plate 268, p. 302, plate 312, p. 319, plate 317, p. 323, plates 339-40, p. 337, plate 341, p. 338, plate 342, p. 339, plate 343, p. 340. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture',Furniture History, 1990, vol. XXVI, p. 67-89. Shena Mason, Matthew Boulton Selling What the World Desires, Yale University Press, Exhibition catalogue Gas Hall Gallery, May-September 2009. This highly important candelabrum made in around 1770-71 and fashioned in Derbyshire fluorspar also known as blue john, with sumptuous ormolu mounts with a pierced rim for the emission of incense is after the celebrated Royal model known as the ‘King’s candlevase’ executed by Matthew Boulton (1728-1809), after a design by William Chambers (1722-96) and made in around 1770-71 (fig. 5). History of the model: Matthew Boulton received an order for a number of articles, the most important of which was a new chimney garniture to replace the existing one of porcelain vases in the Queen’s bedroom following an audience with Queen Charlotte and King George III in late February 1770. He informed the Queen that seven vases would be needed and according to subsequent letter from him to his partner, John Fothergill (1728-1782), he stated that ‘some of them about as large as the 4-branched vase…’ and the largest was to be ‘feneered with blew john and like the new tea kitchen’. The order probably included two pairs of vases of the King’s model and a pair of sphinx vases. All were to be manufactured by Matthew Boulton from his ‘or moulu’ - gilt-bronze of a coppery colour and highly polished specimens of Derbyshire fluorspar or blue john as it was known, the coloured crystalline stone which became a hallmark of Boulton. Sir William Chambers, the King’s principal adviser was involved with this important commission. Chambers travelled to Italy and France from 1749-55 and he drew many architectural details including busts, friezes and vases and other ornaments and over 500 of these drawings were pasted into his ‘Franco-Italian’ album now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The inspiration for many of Boulton and Fothergill’s mounts can be traced to these drawings. A few days after the initial meeting Boulton met Chambers to discuss the project during which Chambers gave to Boulton ‘some valuable usefull and acceptable Modells’ and the latter promised an improved design for the foot of the candlevases which he was working up ‘from a sketch of the king’s’. In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1770, Chambers exhibited a drawing of ‘Various Vases & c. to be executed in or moulu, by Mr Boulton, for their Majesties’. The Chambers features included a pierced entrelac band at the neck, heavily looped laurel swags on the body, coved fluting, lion masks, paterae, Greek-key pattern borders and spirally fluted feet for the bases. William Chambers (1723-1796), who served alongside Robert Adam as the King's Architect from 1766, may be credited with the design of the foot of the present vase: he is reported to have supplied a drawing based on a sketch by the King for 'a better foot' for Boulton and Fothergill's '4-branched vase'. This is most likely to relate to the design of the 'King's candle-vase' because the same design of foot, and its close variants, recurs often amongst the group of works supplied by Boulton to the King - most notably in extended form to the clock which forms the centrepiece of the aforementioned garniture. Goodison goes on to suggest that Chambers was probably also responsible for considerably more of the design than just the foot. Boulton produced the design of the vase to serve as part of the garniture for Queen Charlotte and from Fothergill's correspondence it is clear that that the original garniture included six vases and a clock case. Goodison suggests, op. cit., (based on the descriptions and reserve figures for vases of the same design included in Boulton's first sale at Christie's the following year) that the garniture is most likely to have consisted of four vases of this design, a pair of smaller sphinx-mounted vases and a mantel clock. Four of these vases were subsequently moved to Windsor castle in 1829, two of the 'King's candle-vases' are now on the mantelpiece in the Queen's private sitting room together with the pair of sphinx-vases and the clock, whilst the two further 'King's candle-vases' are on display in the State Bedroom at Windsor Castle. The overall design of the vase is not dissimilar to the one illustrated and described as a ‘caryatic vase’, illustrated by Goodison, op. cit., plate 317, p. 323.The cover is similar to the one on the vases illustrated by the same author plate 244, p. 288 and the oval patera on the body of the vase and plinth appear on other vases, see for example, op. cit., plate 268, p. 302. The use of caryatids as a prominent feature of the design appealed to the enthusiasm for the antique taste at that time and Boulton was familiar with the use of both male and female figues as decorative supports in classical architecture from his general study of classical sources. Furthermore, he is known to have owned a copy of William Chamber’s ‘Treatise on Civil Architecture’ in which ‘Perisans and Caryatides’ had a whole chapter devoted to them. Boulton on the back of having supplied the King and Queen provided examples of the 'King's candle-vase' to many notable patrons, some with minor variations to the design. They were offered to patrons as one of the firm’s standard patterns and is recorded in a sketch numbered 399, in the pattern Book, p.19, illustrated by Goodison, op. cit., plate 341, p. 338 (fig. 6). Also see a design for the support of three candelbranches from Boulton and Fothergill’s Pattern Book, I, p.19, fig. 1, similar to that on this vase reproduced by Goodison, Ormolu, The Work of Matthew Boulton, 1974, plate 162 (fig. 7). There are examples of the King’s candlevases with branches very close to those in the sketch and some even have an extra loop in the outside branch. A drawing for a similar candlebranch with an added feature of a scroll beneath the arm enclosing a flowerhead is illustrated by Goodison op. cit., plate 312, p. 319. Variations included examples with statuary marble bodies and some with six branches, the latter can be seen on th eHinton Ampner example. Boulton and Fothergill included two examples of this design in their sale at Christie's in May 1771, lots 86 and 88 ('A Catalogue of the Superb and elegant produce of Messrs Boulton and Fothergill's Or moulu Manufactory' ), each described as follows 'A large vase of radix amethysti and or molu perforated for incense with two double branches, supported by demy satyrs, with festoons, etc. standing on a plynth richly inlaid, after a model that hath been executed for his majesty’. An example of the candelvase with double branches with three candlearms was made for Lord Grantham in 1771 and he may well have ordered it after seeing the two vases in the view before the Christie’s sale in April and in 1771 William Matthews, Boulton’s London banker, received the following missive from Boulton and Fothergill ‘….The branches were not thought quite so perfect as they should be and therefore we have had new ones modelled for six lights instead of four which are in general much better….’ Despite the extra arms Boulton did not increase the price. Other recorded examples of this model: Several examples known to date of this model and close variants survive in the following collections: -Saltram Park, Devon, (NT 871327.1) (fig. 8) five vases with six candlebranches, as on this model, acquired 1772 by John Parker (1734/5-1788), Baron Boringdon (1784) and by descent to Edmund Robert Parker (1877-1951), 4th Earl of Morley. They were commissioned for the House by Mrs. Thomas Parker in 1771 following her admiration of the one her brother, Lord Grantham had acquired (ante); four remain in her Adam saloon, as originally intended, and an additional candelabra is in the dining room. The vases are identical in design and all five have doublebranches for three candles on either side, see plate 343, p. 340. The mounts are similar to those on the vases made for the King and the plinths are made of wood veneered in tortoiseshell. -Harewood House, Leeds and the Art Institute of Chicago, (restricted gift of Mrs. Medard W. Welch, 1969.233) (fig. 9) both with four candlebranches, with an extra loop in the outside branch and neither has the mount on the ebonised projections on which the lions’ mask is fitted which can be seen in the sketch. -a pair with double branches and white marble bodies from the collection of Lord Elphinstone, sold Christie’s, 7th November 1988, lot 25, was in the Partridge Fine Arts Summer exhibition in 1989. -a blue john bodied example was sold from The Fermor-Hesketh Collections, Christie's London, 7th July 1988, lot 7. -another example with four candlebranches formed part of the collection of HRH The Prince George, Duke of Kent. It was sold by Princess Marina, Dowager Duchess of Kent at Christie, Manson & Wood's sale of her property at Derby House, London, 12th-14th March 1947 as lot 313, where it was purchased by 'F.P.' at 220 10s 0d. 'F.P.' was almost certainly Frank Partridge, who it is believed was acting as agent for the Earl and Countess of Harewood. -a pair similar to the Windsor pair, formerly in the collection of the Earl of Yarborough, sold Christies 11th July 1929, lot 119. Matthew Boulton (1728- 1809) and James Fothergill (d.1782): Matthew Boulton and James Fothergill founded their celebrated factory at Soho, near Birmingham in 1761. Boulton was not only a consummate entrepreneur with unrivalled abilities in securing the patronage of both the Royal family and the aristocracy but also an engineer. He was described by Josiah Wedgwood in 1767 as ‘the most complete manufacturer in England in metal’. During the period 1768-1782, Boulton and his partner John Fothergill became the largest and pre-eminent producers of costly decorative items in England. Boulton’s ormolu ornaments were marketed to customers not only in Britain but also overseas. He enjoyed the patronage of King George II and Queen Charlotte and also foreign Royals such as Catherine the Great of Russia.