A PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUE JOHN AND SIMULATED MALACHITE `CLEOPATRA' VASES

Matthew Boulton's candle vases of this pattern, one of the earliest of the vases to be made at Soho, were commonly referred to as `Cleopatra' vases. Boulton first used the term in correspondence in 1770 and in the same year the Marquess of Rockingham bought a pair, though there is no indication of precisely what form these vases took. However in 1771 at Boulton's sale at Christie's, there were several pairs of vases that correspond to the description of the present lot and Boulton specifically referred to `Cleopatra vases' in a subsequent letter to William Matthews detailing the unsold stock.
They follow a drawing in Boulton's Pattern Book I, p. 171. However, only one pair of vases with medallions of Cleopatra is known; others depict Ceres and yet more, including the lot offered here, have neither. Other than this difference, the vases follow the same form, nearly all have blue john bodies but the bases vary, most have panels of painted glass in imitation of agate, aventurine or malachite.
The vase pattern is discussed in detail in N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, pp. 328 - 330, and three variations on the pattern are illustrated, figs. 327, 328 and 329.
A pair of `Cleopatra' vases with simulated agate plinths but lacking covers is in the collection of Soho House Museum, Birmingham. Among other pairs sold at auction the most closely related, with blue and gold `aventurine' plinths, was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 29 November 1979, lot 1 (£1,250 including premium). Another pair from the Moller Collection, Thorncombe Park, was sold Sotheby's, London, 18 November 1993, lot 98 (£43,300 including premium), and another with white marble plinths but lacking covers was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 23 November 2005, lot 13A (£20,400 including premium).