拍品专文
The chimera monopodiae which derive from antique candelabra, tripods and tazzae relate to the classical style promoted by Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807. Together with the frieze reliefs of arabesque sphinxes flanking a tazza they relate to his table patterns, ibid., pl.XV, nos.3 and 4. As so often with Hope the latter derive from the work of his friend Percier in pl.IV of his Receuil de Décorations Intérieures of 1801. The central frieze motif is derived from bronze enrichments on an inkstand supplied by the Vulliamys to George, Prince of Wales in 1808 (see: G. de Bellaigue, 'The Vulliamys and France', Furniture History, 1967, pl.8)
One of the least known features of the decorative art trade in the early 19th Century are the plaster shops that provided a less expensive alternative to both bronze mounts and carved wood. It is entirely characteristic of the makers that all the elements that combine to make up these consoles should be from well known published sources. The firms of Humphrey Hopper (d.1834) of Wigmore Street and G.B.Gianelli of Cock Lane were capable of producing these monopodiae as well as statues (see: T.Clifford, 'The plaster shops of the rococo and neo-classical era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 1992, vol.4, no.1, pp.39-65)
One of the least known features of the decorative art trade in the early 19th Century are the plaster shops that provided a less expensive alternative to both bronze mounts and carved wood. It is entirely characteristic of the makers that all the elements that combine to make up these consoles should be from well known published sources. The firms of Humphrey Hopper (d.1834) of Wigmore Street and G.B.Gianelli of Cock Lane were capable of producing these monopodiae as well as statues (see: T.Clifford, 'The plaster shops of the rococo and neo-classical era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 1992, vol.4, no.1, pp.39-65)