Live Auction 7746Parisian Taste in London: A Private Collection and Furniture
A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT-COPPER 'GOAT'S HEAD' CANDLE-VASES
Lot 277 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT-COPPER 'GOAT'S HEAD' CANDLE-VASES

BY MATTHEW BOULTON, CIRCA, 1770

Closed10 September 2009

Price Realised

GBP 5,625

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A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILT-COPPER 'GOAT'S HEAD' CANDLE-VASES
BY MATTHEW BOULTON, CIRCA, 1770
Each with a reversible reeded nozzle and finial above an ovoid body with goats' heads and laurel swags, hung to one side with an oval medallion depicting the head of Alexander the Great, on a turned foliate and spirally-fluted socle and a stepped square plinth, with ball feet
201/2 in. (22 cm.) high, as candle sticks (2)

The late Ann, Lady Rootes; Christie's, London, 22 May 1969, lot 26 (850gns).
With Norman Adams.

Specialist note

The 'goat's head' vase pattern was first recorded by in 1769 when a Mrs Yeats ordered from Matthew Boulton '1 pair of goat's head vauses light blue cheny or enamelled'. Several pairs were also listed in Christie's sale in 1771 of Boulton's ornaments. Twenty-eight pairs of 'candle vases with laurel festoons' were included in that sale, three enamalled pairs and five gilt pairs. A pair with blue john bodies with medallions of Alexander the Great (the only known medallion applied to the goat's head vase) is in The Royal Collection (see Goodison 2002, op. cit., p. 331). A pattern for the vase was included in the Pattern Book, vol. I, p. 171 and reproduced here.