拍品专文
These George II 'term-fashion' gueridons are in the 'antique' manner and served as pedestals for candelabra or flower vases, and often accompanied a pier-table or commode-table. They evolved from terminal-posts, dedicated to Roman deities, and relate to some garden terms designed around 1620 by the Palladian architect Inigo Jones (d. 1652) for Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (sold in these Rooms, 10 December 1985, lot 244). These, in turn, inspired Chiswick Villa's stone terms, designed in the 1720's by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and his architect William Kent (d. 1749). Kent also designed scrolled-bracket and nymph-caryatid chimneypieces to illustrate Alexander Gay's Fables, 1727, as well as for George II's Banqueting Room at Kensington Palace, and for Sir Robert Walpole's Banqueting Hall at Houghton, Norfolk. The latter, with naturally scrolled hair, support fruit-baskets beneath elaborately moulded entablatures, while husk-garlands are suspended from the stud of their scarves. Being 'nature' nymphs, these pedestals have waisted shafts with scaled imbrication, and their plinths are supported by bifurcated acanthus-volutes. Amongst closely related plain carved, gilt or painted pedestals are George II's Ionic-capped 'nymph' pedestals, now at Hampton Court Palace, which were supplied under William Kent's direction by Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767), the Court cabinet-maker, who described them as being 'carved term-fashion' in his account of 1732-3.
Kent also designed the pair of Ionic-capped 'cherubim' pedestals for Lady Burlington, which were carved by John Boson in 1735 (Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 188). These relate to a design, in the carver Matthias Lock's sketch-book in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has been associated with the Ionic 'cherubim' from Hinton House, Somerset, which were sold by Earl Poulett, Sotheby's London, 1 November 1968, lot 61, and are now at Acton Round, Shropshire (Country Life, 9 March 1978, p.617, fig. 9); and to an Ionic 'Hercules'-pedestal design by John Vardy (d. 1765), Kent's colleague on George II's Board of Works, and which is likely to have been executed by his brother, the carver Thomas Vardy, for Longford Castle, Wiltshire. Two related fruit-garlanded and basket-bearing nymphs, which serve as torchères, are in the Temple at Riveaulx Abbey, Yorkshire.
Kent also designed the pair of Ionic-capped 'cherubim' pedestals for Lady Burlington, which were carved by John Boson in 1735 (Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 188). These relate to a design, in the carver Matthias Lock's sketch-book in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has been associated with the Ionic 'cherubim' from Hinton House, Somerset, which were sold by Earl Poulett, Sotheby's London, 1 November 1968, lot 61, and are now at Acton Round, Shropshire (Country Life, 9 March 1978, p.617, fig. 9); and to an Ionic 'Hercules'-pedestal design by John Vardy (d. 1765), Kent's colleague on George II's Board of Works, and which is likely to have been executed by his brother, the carver Thomas Vardy, for Longford Castle, Wiltshire. Two related fruit-garlanded and basket-bearing nymphs, which serve as torchères, are in the Temple at Riveaulx Abbey, Yorkshire.