POSSIBLY BY THOMAS JOHNSON, CIRCA 1750

THE MODEL
It has been suggested that the Chinoiserie figures on the pair of torchères may originate from English or French Chinoiserie prints. Indeed, the importation of silks and porcelain from the East was significant in promoting the taste for Chinoiserie, an imaginary portrayal of the exotic orient rather than an imitation of reality. In 1754, Mathew Darly (circa 1720-1781), caricaturist, print-seller and ornamental engraver (renowned for engraving most of the plates for Thomas Chippendale's Director), and George Edwards (d. 1760), published fanciful oriental-inspired designs in A New Book of Chinese Designs Calculated to Improve the present Taste, consisting of Figures, Buildings, & Furniture, Landskips, Birds, Beasts, Flowers and Ornaments. In parallel, in Paris, Pierre Aveline (d. 1760) was making prints after the whimsical Chinoiserie drawings of Francois Boucher (d. 1770).

Another pair of torchères, similar in design and spirit, was almost certainly supplied to Sir Roger Palmer, 1st Bt. (d. 1816) of Castle Lacken, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo and later Kenure Park, Co. Dublin, Ireland. They were photographed in the 1964 Kenure Park sale catalogue flanking the magnificent parcel-gilt padouk cabinet-on-stand, attributed to Thomas Chippendale (sold Christie's, London, 18 June 2008, lot 8, £2,729,250). The Kenure torchères were later sold, the property of a Distinguished European Collector; Christie's London, 22 May 2014, lot 1163 (£58,500 after the sale). Another closely related pair was in the collection formed by the 1st Viscount Leverhulme. These are presently in the collections of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (P. Macquoid, English Furniture, Tapestry and Needlework of the XVIth-XIXth Centuries, London, 1928, no. 285, pl. 54).

THOMAS JOHNSON
The torchères were likely to have been crafted by Thomas Johnson (d. 1778), described by Helena Hayward as one of the most influential English designers of the 18th century, and a renowned carver and gilder (J. Simon, 'Thomas Johnson's "The Life of the Author"', Furniture History Society, 2003, pp. 1-64). Johnson's Life of the Author (1793) reveals that in the mid-1740s, as an apprentice in the workshop of James Whittle, he worked with Matthias Lock (d. 1765) who also incorporated Chinoiserie elements in his pattern book, A New Book of Ornaments (1752), and lent his drawings to Johnson to copy (see a design for a table with Chinese seated figures reproduced in P. Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the 18th Century, London, 1958, pl. 55). With Lock as his mentor, Johnson almost certainly knew Edwards and Darly's A New Book of Chinese Designs.

Between 1753 and 1755 Johnson was working in Dublin where he produced decorative carving for interiors in addition to mirror and table frames. Although he was employed by a 'Mr. Partridge', possibly William Partridge, a 'principal carver' supplying frames to looking-glass shops, he brought three of his own apprentices and four journeymen from London suggesting he was intending to undertake independent work. Johnson describes a Gothic chimneypiece he supplied to leading Dublin society figure, Lady Arabella Denny, which attracted the attention of her nephew, Lord Shelburne, who subsequently invited him to work for him either in Dublin or at his country seat, probably Bowood, Wiltshire. On an earlier visit to Dublin in 1746-48 Johnson had worked for a 'Mr. Houghton', this was possibly John Houghton (d. 1761) of Duke Street, the leading Irish carver, described by Johnson in his biography as 'the best wood-carver, for basso-relievo figures, I ever saw before or since. I made great improvements from him, and his apprentices from me'. Johnson stated that he had received 'many advantageous offers' although unfortunately he does not describe his work or commissions, and as no furniture bills in Johnson's name have been identified, it is likely much of his finest work sold under another's name (Simon, op. cit., p. 6). Johnson's Irish connection is interesting given the provenance on the closely related pair of torchères from Kenure Park, Dublin.

MENTMORE TOWERS
These torchères formed part of the legendary collections at Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire and were part of the celebrated sale of 1977. Mentmore Towers was one of the great Rothschild buildings in England, created for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild by Joseph Paxton in 1850, in a grandiloquent style reminiscent of the celebrated Elizabethan prodigy houses of the 16th century such as Hardwick Hall and Wollaton Hall. The sale typified all the grandeur of the goût Rothschild, with treasures ranging from a chimneypiece reputedly from Rubens's house in Antwerp, to throne chairs from the Palazzo Ducale in Venice and a magnificent collection of French furniture. Interestingly the collection at Mentmore did include a scattering of English furniture, including a group of seat furniture by Chippendale of which a pair of side chairs was subsequently sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Gutfreund; Christie's, New York, 27 January 2021, lot 271. In the sale catalogue, the figures, described at the time as German, are shown holding different supports which have since been changed to a more appropriate pattern in keeping with designs of Thomas Chippendale (see The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd Edition, 1762, pl. No. LXXI). It is unclear when these splendid torchères entered the collection- they do not appear in the privately published Mentmore 'inventory' of 1883-1884 presently in the Rothschild archives.