A pair of marble vases and covers on wooden pedestals
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1750 - 1780
Materials
Marble vase and cover on a wooden pedestal
Measurements
710 mm (Height); 460 mm (Diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 772412
Summary
A pair of white marble baluster shaped vases with covers and associated pedestals. The vases are decorated throughout, mainly with gadrooning, acanthus and stylised palmettes. The form and decoration of the vases are loosely based on the Medici Vase, a bronze reproduction of which is at Osterley (NT 771969.2). The main fields are occupied by marine scenes carved in relief, but differ slightly in their decoration. Marble covers are decorated with wreaths and pine cone shaped finials. Vases sit on painted white pedestals. Three of the four faces of the square pedestals are decorated with applied carving consisting of a central motif of acanthus leaves, in front of which hangs swags of oak leaves with laurel pendants. The base has a bold moulding of ribbon and rosette round the top. The flat top has bead-and-reel, egg-and-dart and acanthus tip mouldings round the edge.
Provenance
First recorded in the 1782 inventory of Osterley Park as in the Marble Hall. Purchased from George Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998) by HM Government in 1949 for the Nation and vested in the Victoria and Albert Museum; transferred to the National Trust in 2002.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Osterley Park, The Jersey Collection)
References
Tomlin, 1986: Maurice Tomlin. “The 1782 inventory of Osterley Park.” Furniture History 22 (1986): pp.107-134., p.122 'Four elegant Marble Vases with Basic Relieve figures on carved and painted Pedestals', Inventory of Osterley Park, 1871., p.118 List of the China at Osterley Park, Middlesex, and at Middleton Park Oxford. Scheduled and valued for exemption under the best advice obtainable July 1915., p. 306 Clifford Smith, H: An Inventory and Valuation of the Works of Art of the State Rooms at Osterley Park, Isleworth. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Art Library, 1939., p. 43