A PAIR OF REGENCY EBONISED TORCHERES

These 'bronzed' tripod torchères are conceived as Roman bronze candelabrum in the antique manner promoted by the Rome-trained architect C.H. Tatham's Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, 1799 and subsequently adopted in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1801, pl. XXVI.
The industrious Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842) travelled to Italy in 1794, dividing much of his time between Rome and Naples where he incessantly sketched ancient architecture and ornament, as well as assembling a collection of architectural fragments on behalf of his sponsor, the architect to the Prince Regent, Henry Holland. Tatham returned to England in 1797, publishing his drawings two years later, which became a vital source of material for many of his contemporaries working in the new spare archeological neoclassical style, such as Thomas Hope.