A REGENCY ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED FROSTED-GLASS HANGING LIGHT

Although now apparently lacking a signature, this dish-light is the earliest recorded work of the light-manufacturer William Collins of 227, The Strand (fl.1808-1852) who is best known for his work at Northumberland House for the Duke of Northumberland, a commission which spanned seventeen years. Among the self-descriptions used on papers in the Northumberland archive is one from 1822: 'Glass Enameller Glass Manufacturer to the King and to the Royal Family' which presumably refers to the technique used here. He is also known to have supplied fittings to Bath House, Piccadilly, and a pair of torcheres from that commission, signed and dated 1823, is now in the Bowes Museum, Co. Durham.