A PAIR OF GEORGE II GILTWOOD WALL CARVINGS

This pair of carved wall-pendants were possibly part of the original panel decoration of the State Bedroom and two other rooms that were dismantled circa 1811 when Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury (1768-1851) succeeded his elder brother, Anthony. They were possibly commissioned by Lord Shaftesbury around the time of his marriage in 1759 to Mary Bouverie, daughter of the 1st Viscount of Folkestone, who lived at Longford Castle. It was at this time that St Giles's was redecorated in the rococo style. Part of the carved limewood pendants of these rooms were applied to a 19th-century giltwood side table (sold Highly Important English Furniture and Sculpture from St Giles’s House, Dorset; Christie’s, London, 26 June 1980, lot 68), an example of the whimsical Rococo Revival taste that was so popular in the mid-19th century.

These wall carvings are redolent in many ways of the work of the late 17th-century court sculptor Grinling Gibbons (d. 1721). Described in Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1762-71 as ‘an original genius’ and ‘a citizen of nature’, he was celebrated for the naturalistic illusionism of his wood carvings. A similar realism and attention to detail is evident in the intricate festoons of fruit and flowers seen here. However, the mischievous satyr masks are removed from the earlier sculptor’s style. As a motif, similar impish faces reappear on other pieces formerly at St Giles dating from the time of the 4th Earl, such as the celebrated St Giles Chandelier, where the foliate scrolled candle arms issue from satyr masks (sold in the aforementioned sale, lot 89).