Nostell Priory's Hamilton Palace Vases and Stands
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1850
Materials
The vase: turtleshell, ivory, semi-precious stones and gems, glass, paint, gilding; the stand: wood painted to imitate marble and ebony, gilding, gesso over a fabric layer, paint
Measurements
209 cm (Height) (overall)
Place of origin
Venice
Collection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959676.2
Summary
A large tortoiseshell and ivory vase and cover, mid-19th century, Venetian, raised on a Venetian ebonized, faux marble and parcel-gilt stand, mid-19th century, Venetian. One of a pair. The vase with elaborate pierced covers and handles, its body inlaid in ivory and semi-precious stones with reserves of strapwork, birds and animals, raised on an ebonized, painted and parcel-gilt stand of four crouching figures, supporting the vase on their arms and heads, with parcel-gilt turbans and robes, and on a faux marble circular base.
Full description
The 12th Duke of Hamilton was said in 1878 - 9 to have 'when recently in Venice, acquired two magnificent bottle-shaped vases, composed of tortioseshell inlaid with ivory, and studded with turquoise, and other precious stones. The vases are four feet in height. They are placed on pedestals two feet in height, supported by three 'negroes' in a kneeling posture.' The figures derive from a European aesthetic tradition known as the ‘blackamoor’, a conflation of the Black African and Muslim ‘Moor’. The motif has existed in European decorative art since the medieval period but developed into a recognisable type in Italy, chiefly Venice, in the 17th century, and was revived there in the 19th century. In England, as early as 1638 Sir Henry Slingsby had 'a blackamore cast in led [sic] holding in either hand a candlestick to set a candle to give light to ye staircase'. In art the ‘blackamoor’ is usually a representation of a Black African in exotic and orientalised costume, here a turban. Highly stylised and entirely imaginary, their identities combine various stereotypes from the ‘non-European’ – i.e. African, Asian, and occasionally Native American – ‘other’. The motif is found across western material culture from ceramics to silverware, heraldry to jewellery, furniture to sculpture, architecture, painting and print (e.g. NT 413922, 452977, 936871, 118826, 129512, 802613, 1139940). As in this example, the ‘blackamoor’ was often posed in service, literally functioning as a tray, box or clock holder, a torchère, or as a motif carved into the supportive elements of furniture. The ornamental ‘blackamoor’ belongs to a range of objects marketed in Europe to signify colonial prosperity, which, from the 17th century, became increasingly dependent on the Transatlantic slave trade. Such figures were designed in European workshops for elite domestic settings and were displayed with other luxury goods purchased, imported, and collected from across the globe. One vase marked '17 Aprile 1861' to its underside, confirming an Italian provenance. The terms 'negroes' and 'blackamoor' are outdated and offensive. They are retained here in the interests of research and historical data.
Provenance
Purchased by Rowland Winn, 1st Baron St Oswald (1820 - 1893) from a dealer, W. Grindlay, who acquired them from the Hamilton Palace Sale of 1882 at a cost of £173 5s. They appear in a photograph of an interior of Hamilton Palace in 1882 and can be identified in the sale catalogue as Lot 667, 'A pair of Large Venetian Ornaments, formed as globular vases...encrusted with tortoiseshell inlaid with birds and patterns of engraved ivory, studded with gold pique work and coloured stones.' The vases were placed in the Tapestry Room at Nostell, where they were described in 'A Series of Picturesque Views of Castles & Country Houses in Yorkshire' in 1885. They were later moved into the Saloon by the 2nd Baron, and were photographed there by Country Life in 1907. Thence by descent, until purchased by the National Trust in 2002 with the assistance of the National Heritage Memoria] Fund (NHMF), the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), and the National Art Collections Fund (NACF).
References
Sproule, Anna, Lost Houses of Britain (1982), p. 172