A PAIR OF VICTORIAN SILVER-GILT TWO-LIGHT WALL-SCONCES

The arms are those of La Fontaine quartering Cart for Alfred Cart de la Fontaine. An antiquarian, he acquired Athelhampton House in Dorset in 1891. The house had originally been built for Sir William Martyn in about 1493 and went through various alterations and ownerships over the centuries, including a spell owned by Sir William’s son Nicholas who was to marry Margaret, sister to and a co-heiress of Nicholas Wadham, co-founder with his wife Dorothy of Wadham College, Oxford.

While owner of Athelhampton, de Lafontaine was to undertake a program of restoration as well as creating a dramatic garden inspired by the Renaissance. Thomas Hardy was known to be a regular visitor to the house as it is believed his father, a stonemason, spent time working there. It can be assumed that the present wall-sconces were commissioned as part of the internal works.