Live Auction 7592Four British Collections Including Important Furniture
A PAIR OF ENGLISH GILTWOOD TORCHERES
Lot 142 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
(LOTS 130-209)

A PAIR OF ENGLISH GILTWOOD TORCHERES

ONE GEORGE I, FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, THE OTHER BY W.THOMAS, LONDON, LATE 20TH CENTURY

Closed5 June 2008

Price Realised

GBP 25,000

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A PAIR OF ENGLISH GILTWOOD TORCHERES
ONE GEORGE I, FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, THE OTHER BY W.THOMAS, LONDON, LATE 20TH CENTURY
Carved overall with acanthus leaves, scallop shells and husks, each with a foliate-carved gadrooned circular top above a beaded waisted neck and an imbricated tapering shaft, on a tripod base with cabriole legs terminating in scroll feet, headed by shells, the George I torchere with later top, regilt
50 in. (127 cm.) high; 13¼ in. (33.5 cm.) diameter (2)

Anonymous sale (The Property of a Maine Private Collector), Sotheby's, New York, 14-15 April 2000, lot 348.

Specialist note

The tripodic pier-set gueridon stands designed in George I 'Roman' fashion for vases or candelabra and originally supplied en suite with a table and mirror, comprise urn-capped pillars on truss-pilaster 'claws'. Its Roman acanthus-flowered and 'Venus' pearled urn is raised on a herm-tapered baluster with foliage draped lambrequin that evokes the triumphal water-carriage of Venus being sculpted with the deity's 'shell' framed by dolphin-scales; while its shell-decked 'claw' is raised on palm-flowered and wave-voluted trusses. Their Roman style, derived in part from Louis Quatorze 'boulle' stands, relates in particular to Lord Howe's George I silver-embossed stands and pier-set table and mirror illustrated in Country Life in 1928 (see 'A Set of Silver-mounted Furniture from Lord Howe's Collection at Penn House, near Amersham, Country Life, 26th May 1928 p 783; and R. Edwards, Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1964 p.486, fig.9).
A related pair of torcheres removed from Warwick Castle, was sold, Sotheby's, London, 23 November 2005, lot 15 (£114,000 including premium).