Untitled
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1780
Materials
Softwood, limewood, gesso, composition, gilding, paint
Measurements
169.5 cm (Height); 60.0 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959705.1
Summary
A torchere, one of a pair of painted and parcel-gilt torcheres, English, circa 1780. Each topped by an urn applied with rams' masks and pendant garlands of husk, standing on a circular platform with fluted edge and further rams' masks and drapery swags. Raised on a central two-part acanthus-wrapped, baluster-turned, alternately fluted and reeded, shaft, and three moulded outer supports terminating in rectangular scrolls. All on a concave-sided triangular base, painted to simulate maple and ash, and with a lyre between laurel sprays. -- Never attributed to either Adam or Chippendale, though of the period, and possibly the '2 Terms Painted for Passage between the Salloon [sic] & Hall' mentioned by Haig & Chippendale on 30th June 1781 in a list of furniture that had been finished for two years but not yet despatched to Nostell (because Sir Rowland had not paid for it).
Provenance
Date of acquisition not recorded; accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties on the estate of Rowland Winn, 4th Baron Oswald (1916 - 1984), 1986.
References
Gilbert, 1990: Christopher Gilbert. “New light on the furnishing of Nostell Priory.” Furniture History 26 (1990): 53 - 66, 60