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拍品专文
The sphinx pattern evolved from the tripod sphinx-supported cassolette such as Joseph-Marie Vien illustrated in his Suite de vases composé dans le Goût antique, 1760. While such vases served in part to recall the Roman columbarium, they also inspired Homeric concepts of 'sacrifices at love's altar in antiquity'.
The architect Robert Adam (d.1792) played a prominent role in promoting Etruscan vases as an architectural element in Salons or rooms-of-entertainment fashionably dressed à la Français, but an equally important role was played by James 'Athenian' Stuart (d.1788), the Rome-trained artist and protégé of the Dilettanti Society. Stuart had already introduced one such chimneypiece garniture, symbolizing 'Eternal Love' with a sphinx-guarded urn, in his 1750s proposal for Kedleston, Derbyshire; while he also produced a related sphinx-supported vase for the dining-room hearth (see Stuart's 'Kedleston' design illustrated Susan Weber Soros ed., James 'Athenian' Stuart, New York, 2006, figs. 6-31).
In the present case, it was the Rome-trained court architect Sir William Chambers (d.1796), who, in 1770, encouraged Boulton in the introduction of this pattern of Eternity cassolette at the Queen's House (now Buckingham Palace), where it provided appropriate accompaniment for Queen Charlotte's mantel-clock. In March that year, Boulton recorded his visit to the palace to decide, 'how many vases it would take to furnish' in place of china the chimneypiece in the Queen's Apartment (N. Goodison, Ormolu: Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 31-32, 85, 183-64). Chambers' design for this vase is likely to have been amongst those that he exhibited at the Royal Academy that year as 'to be executed in ormolu, by Mr. Bolton, for their Majesties'. He also at this time produced a design for an urn-capped clock supported by sphinx (see J. Harris and M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, London, 1997, p. 158 and fig. 235; and p. 157, fig. 233). The Queen Charlotte's cassolettes or 'sphinx vases' were also intended to stand beside a pair of Boulton's vases, whose pattern was named after King George III as the 'King's' vase (J. Roberts (ed.), George III and Queen Charlotte, London, 2004, p. 269, no. 275).
Robert Bradbury of Castleton, Derbyshire supplied six blue john bodies for sphinx vases in 1770 (no. 45). Boulton included twelve vases of this pattern in the London sales of his 'Superb and elegant produce' held at Christie and Ansell's, Pall Mall in 1770, 1771, and 1772. They were described as 'in the antique taste radix amethysti and ormolu, lined with silver, and perforated for essence, supported by four sphinxes upon an ornamental base of ebony' (ibid., 1974, pp. 34, 36, 136, 163).
A pair of 'sphinx' vases is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (S. Walker ed., Vasemania, New York, 2004, no. 45) and another vase of this pattern is in the Royal Collection (Goodison, pp. 163-165, figs. 94, 96-99; and Roberts, p. 270, no. 276). A pair from the H. H. Mulliner Collection was sold Christie's, London, 10 July 1924, lot 40 (illustrated H. H. Mulliner, The Decorative Arts in England 1660-1780, London, 1923, fig. 163). A pair from the Dr. Norman Gay collection, with simulated agate glass panels, was sold Christie's, London, 28 June 1984, lot 3 and another pair, with simulated lapis lazuli glass panels, was sold Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1986, lot 17. There is a further single example in the Aitken collection (lot 58).
The architect Robert Adam (d.1792) played a prominent role in promoting Etruscan vases as an architectural element in Salons or rooms-of-entertainment fashionably dressed à la Français, but an equally important role was played by James 'Athenian' Stuart (d.1788), the Rome-trained artist and protégé of the Dilettanti Society. Stuart had already introduced one such chimneypiece garniture, symbolizing 'Eternal Love' with a sphinx-guarded urn, in his 1750s proposal for Kedleston, Derbyshire; while he also produced a related sphinx-supported vase for the dining-room hearth (see Stuart's 'Kedleston' design illustrated Susan Weber Soros ed., James 'Athenian' Stuart, New York, 2006, figs. 6-31).
In the present case, it was the Rome-trained court architect Sir William Chambers (d.1796), who, in 1770, encouraged Boulton in the introduction of this pattern of Eternity cassolette at the Queen's House (now Buckingham Palace), where it provided appropriate accompaniment for Queen Charlotte's mantel-clock. In March that year, Boulton recorded his visit to the palace to decide, 'how many vases it would take to furnish' in place of china the chimneypiece in the Queen's Apartment (N. Goodison, Ormolu: Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 31-32, 85, 183-64). Chambers' design for this vase is likely to have been amongst those that he exhibited at the Royal Academy that year as 'to be executed in ormolu, by Mr. Bolton, for their Majesties'. He also at this time produced a design for an urn-capped clock supported by sphinx (see J. Harris and M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, London, 1997, p. 158 and fig. 235; and p. 157, fig. 233). The Queen Charlotte's cassolettes or 'sphinx vases' were also intended to stand beside a pair of Boulton's vases, whose pattern was named after King George III as the 'King's' vase (J. Roberts (ed.), George III and Queen Charlotte, London, 2004, p. 269, no. 275).
Robert Bradbury of Castleton, Derbyshire supplied six blue john bodies for sphinx vases in 1770 (no. 45). Boulton included twelve vases of this pattern in the London sales of his 'Superb and elegant produce' held at Christie and Ansell's, Pall Mall in 1770, 1771, and 1772. They were described as 'in the antique taste radix amethysti and ormolu, lined with silver, and perforated for essence, supported by four sphinxes upon an ornamental base of ebony' (ibid., 1974, pp. 34, 36, 136, 163).
A pair of 'sphinx' vases is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (S. Walker ed., Vasemania, New York, 2004, no. 45) and another vase of this pattern is in the Royal Collection (Goodison, pp. 163-165, figs. 94, 96-99; and Roberts, p. 270, no. 276). A pair from the H. H. Mulliner Collection was sold Christie's, London, 10 July 1924, lot 40 (illustrated H. H. Mulliner, The Decorative Arts in England 1660-1780, London, 1923, fig. 163). A pair from the Dr. Norman Gay collection, with simulated agate glass panels, was sold Christie's, London, 28 June 1984, lot 3 and another pair, with simulated lapis lazuli glass panels, was sold Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1986, lot 17. There is a further single example in the Aitken collection (lot 58).