A SET OF SIX GEORGE III BRASS-MOUNTED BLUE ENAMELLED CASSOLLETE VASES

This ornamental vase garniture, concealing candlesticks, comprise sacred altars capped by Grecian 'krater' urns. They may well have been executed in Bilston, a town west of Birmingham, where early experiments in the application of vitreous enamels to thin metal took place as early as 1719, under the direction of the metal japanners, Joseph Allen and Samuel Stone. Production grew and Bilston became the centre for domestic japanned iron and tinplate wares under John Hartill, Bickley and Sons, Hanson and Jacksons and Homer. These metal-workers and Matthew Boulton played an important part in establishing this relatively new domestic industry. It is interesting to note, therefore, that the cassolette form was particularly championed by Messrs. Boulton and Fothergill.

Similar cassolettes are also, known to have been executed by the Swiss craftsman Anthony Tregent of Denmark Street, London (fl. 1750s-1775) (A Theelke, English Decorated Enamel Clock Dials of the 18th Century, 1983).

An identical set of at least four - quite probably the same - is illustrated in another earlier Maison Jansen interior, that of The Holme, London executed by Boudin for Edward James' sister Audrey and her husband the Hon. Peter Pleydell-Bouverie.