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Lot Essay
This magnificent pair of columns epitomizes the height of Roman architectural splendor. Porphyry, long coveted for the magnificence of its color and its extraordinary durability, is a mesmerizing dense igneous stone with light feldspar crystals embedded in a dark purple background. Imperial porphyry, the most prized type, was quarried in the Roman imperial mines on the Mons Porphyrites, today known as Gebel Dokhan, the eastern desert of Egypt. Derived from the Greek πορφύρα (porphyra), meaning "purple," porphyry now refers to a number of hardstones with similar characteristics of varying hues. From their discovery in the 1st century until their abandonment at the collapse of Roman Egypt in the 6th century, the extensive quarries of the Mons Porphyrites produced the celebrated imperial porphyry, known in Italy as porfido rosso antico.
Used extensively for the most luxurious objects and in the grandest edifices of Rome and Byzantium, porphyry was inextricably linked to imperial power and political supremacy, not only because of its purple hue, which was associated with Roman emperors, but also because of the cost of transporting and carving this hard stone. Later rulers would seek to emulate these associations and porphyry was similarly prized by European kings and emperors, including Napoleon, to lend legitimacy to their reigns and reflect the continuity of imperial power from antiquity through to the 19th century.
Because the use of porphyry from the 16th-18th centuries was only possible through the re-use of ancient sculpture, mainly columns, this pair represents an important survival of Roman architectural history. Each of the columns in are of a slightly-tapering cylindrical form with a torus molding at the top and are attached to a contoured base at the bottom. Many Roman examples were later incorporated into churches, ensuring their survival (see nos. C10-C32 in D. del Bufalo, op. cit.). For a similar Roman pair, later transferred and incorporated into Basilica of Saint-Denis, outside Paris, and now in the Louvre (inv. nos. MR 1078-1079), see no. 1674 in J.-L. Martinez, Les antiques du Musée Napoléon.
WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR AND HEVER CASTLE
These columns feature a distinguished modern history, bridging the United States, United Kingdom and Italy during the final decades of the Gilded Age. It is hard not to envision how these columns in porphyry – the Roman material that epitomized imperial majesty and ambition, par excellence – reflected the aspirations of their first recorded owner, William Waldorf Astor.
Astor was born in New York City, the only child of John Jacob Astor and Charlotte Augusta Gibbes. The elder Astor was a prominent financier and philanthropist, whose paternal grandfather, John Jacob Astor I was the first multi-millionaire in the United States and whose fortune was built upon his monopoly in the fur trade and prominent real estate holdings in and around New York.
At the time of his father’s death in 1890, the fortune that William inherited made him the one of the wealthiest Americans of his day, rivaled only by John D. Rockefeller. However, a growing scandal in New York forced him to leave the city and settle in the United Kingdom. In 1893, Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on the site of his father’s mansion and next to the home of his aunt, society doyenne Caroline “Lina” Schermerhorn Astor. Family dynamics contributed to William building the hotel at this site. It was reported that his Aunt Lina insisted that she, and not William’s wife Mary, was the Mrs. Astor of New York, despite William being the head of the senior branch of the Astor family. In due course, Lina’s son, John Jacob Astor IV (who would later die in the sinking of the RMS Titanic) convinced his mother to move uptown, and he built his own hotel on his mother’s property, which opened as the Astoria Hotel. Eventually, the two hotels merged, operating as the Waldorf-Astoria (the hotel closed in 1929 to make room for the Empire State Building; the new Waldorf-Astoria was relocated to Park Avenue in the 1930s, where it remains a landmark to this day).
Astor left New York in 1891, before the opening of the Waldorf Hotel, and amusingly exclaimed, “America is not a fit place for a gentleman to live.” When he arrived in London, Astor first rented Lansdowne House in Berkeley Square, where he resided until 1893. He later built his own mansion, rendered in the Neo-Gothic style, near Victoria Embankment in central London. In 1903, Astor acquired Hever Castle in Kent, about 30 miles south of London. Its complete historical restoration, overseen by the noted architect Frank Loughborough Pearson, and the creation of the Italian Garden on its grounds – which included employing 800 men to excavate a 38 acre lake on the site – is perhaps Astor’s most enduring legacy.
Hever Castle’s oldest portions date back to the 13th century. Anne’s marriage to Henry led to the annulment of his first marriage and set the English Reformation into motion. Over the ensuing centuries, Hever passed through a succession of owners and eventually fell into disrepair; by the late 19th century, it was largely uninhabitable, with leaking roofs and an overflowing moat. Astor conceived of Hever’s potential and possessed the means to restore it to its former glory.
Italy always captivated Astor, who sought to incorporate aspects of that country and its history into the restorations of Hever. Astor first encountered Italy when he served as American Minister to Italy from 1882-1885. In Rome, Astor rented a suite in the Rospigliosi Palace and “had so little to do” that he could devote himself to “archaeology, pictures, Renaissance history, and excursions in the thrill and glory of the Campagna” (p. 67 in C. Aslet, “Hever Castle, Kent – II, The Seat of Lord Astor of Hever, Country Life, 8 January 1981). It was during his stint in Rome that Astor first began acquiring ancient Roman and Neoclassical sculpture and architectural elements. The full vision of Astor’s acquisitions would not be on full display until the completion of his restorations of Hever in 1908.
The journalist George Smalley saw the Italian Garden constructed by Astor as a necessity, stating that “without an Italian Garden and without an atmosphere of Italy about him he could not live” (quoted in C. Aslet, op. cit., p. 69). In The Pall Mall Magazine (“Hever Restored,” vol. XXXIX, no. 165, January 1907, p. 15), the author, simply referred to as “A Visitor,” but almost certainly Astor himself, described the Italian Gardens as such:
Beyond is the new Italian Garden, to which we quickly make our way, for it is a most remarkable feature of what I may call the new Hever. I will ask you to imagine on one side a high wall of the nicest masonry, composed of yellowish stone, stretching away from an eighth of a mile, whose long line is broken by rounded pavilions and niches…I cannot imagine a more delicious retreat than this long cloister, some of whose bays are fashioned into rockeries, where cool fountains play, and fish swim, and plants scent the air.
The grounds of the Italian Garden were dispersed with the statuary he acquired, including ancient Roman sarcophagi, sculptural groups, furniture, and architectural elements. William’s grandson, Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, later described the collection as “interesting as a whole because it illustrates that complicated interweaving of Greek, Asiatic, Etruscan and Roman strands which marked the transition from Paganism to Christianity. The myths of the Greeks and Romans are just as important as their history for understanding what they believed and thought and expressed in writing and in visual art. These myths were inextricably interwoven with the whole fabric of their public and private lives, and the products of their imagination have continued to inspire fresh creative efforts which amount to a substantial part of our whole cultural inheritance” (see G. Astor, op. cit., 1979).
These two porphyry columns, along with six others Astor acquired, adorned the perimeter of the Half Moon Pond, a section of the Italian Garden. Gavin later claimed that William had “a special regard” for these columns and discussed the provenance and history of the group (see Astor, op. cit., 1969): two of them with clawed bases “were in the vestry annexed to the Chapel of the Conservatorio della Mendicanti in Via del Colosseo No. 61, in Rome” and are thought to have originated from the “celebrated Temple of Venus.” He further writes, “In 1905 Mr. Astor added two more Roman columns, one in porphyry and one in settebasi marble” and that “the remaining four columns,” which include the present pair, “were acquired at about the same time.”
Following William’s death in 1919, Hever Castle was inherited by his son, John Jacob Astor V, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, before descending to Gavin. In 1963, Gavin opened Hever to the public for the first time but the cost of running it proved to be too expensive and the castle and its grounds were sold to its current owner, John Guthrie and Broadland Properties, in 1983. The ancient statuary at Hever, including this pair of columns, was largely dispersed at Sotheby’s, London in July of that year, although some antiquities did remain in-situ, including a Roman Marble Group of a Nymph and a Satyr, last offered at Bonhams, London, on 7 December 2023. Today, sculptures from Hever can be found in public and private collections across Europe and the United States, including a Roman Porphyry Support for a Water Basin, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1992.11.70, see no. 495 in C.A. Picón, Art of The Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome).
These porphyry columns, once symbols of imperial Rome’s majesty, found new meaning in Astor’s vision for Hever. Their placement in the Italian Garden speaks not only to the enduring allure of classical antiquity but also to Astor’s own aspirations as an American heir seeking to craft his own Italianate world in the London countryside. These columns embody a dialogue between past and present, between the grandeur of the Roman Empire and the refined taste of a Gilded Age collector determined to leave his mark on one of Britain's most historic castles.
Used extensively for the most luxurious objects and in the grandest edifices of Rome and Byzantium, porphyry was inextricably linked to imperial power and political supremacy, not only because of its purple hue, which was associated with Roman emperors, but also because of the cost of transporting and carving this hard stone. Later rulers would seek to emulate these associations and porphyry was similarly prized by European kings and emperors, including Napoleon, to lend legitimacy to their reigns and reflect the continuity of imperial power from antiquity through to the 19th century.
Because the use of porphyry from the 16th-18th centuries was only possible through the re-use of ancient sculpture, mainly columns, this pair represents an important survival of Roman architectural history. Each of the columns in are of a slightly-tapering cylindrical form with a torus molding at the top and are attached to a contoured base at the bottom. Many Roman examples were later incorporated into churches, ensuring their survival (see nos. C10-C32 in D. del Bufalo, op. cit.). For a similar Roman pair, later transferred and incorporated into Basilica of Saint-Denis, outside Paris, and now in the Louvre (inv. nos. MR 1078-1079), see no. 1674 in J.-L. Martinez, Les antiques du Musée Napoléon.
WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR AND HEVER CASTLE
These columns feature a distinguished modern history, bridging the United States, United Kingdom and Italy during the final decades of the Gilded Age. It is hard not to envision how these columns in porphyry – the Roman material that epitomized imperial majesty and ambition, par excellence – reflected the aspirations of their first recorded owner, William Waldorf Astor.
Astor was born in New York City, the only child of John Jacob Astor and Charlotte Augusta Gibbes. The elder Astor was a prominent financier and philanthropist, whose paternal grandfather, John Jacob Astor I was the first multi-millionaire in the United States and whose fortune was built upon his monopoly in the fur trade and prominent real estate holdings in and around New York.
At the time of his father’s death in 1890, the fortune that William inherited made him the one of the wealthiest Americans of his day, rivaled only by John D. Rockefeller. However, a growing scandal in New York forced him to leave the city and settle in the United Kingdom. In 1893, Astor opened the Waldorf Hotel at 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, on the site of his father’s mansion and next to the home of his aunt, society doyenne Caroline “Lina” Schermerhorn Astor. Family dynamics contributed to William building the hotel at this site. It was reported that his Aunt Lina insisted that she, and not William’s wife Mary, was the Mrs. Astor of New York, despite William being the head of the senior branch of the Astor family. In due course, Lina’s son, John Jacob Astor IV (who would later die in the sinking of the RMS Titanic) convinced his mother to move uptown, and he built his own hotel on his mother’s property, which opened as the Astoria Hotel. Eventually, the two hotels merged, operating as the Waldorf-Astoria (the hotel closed in 1929 to make room for the Empire State Building; the new Waldorf-Astoria was relocated to Park Avenue in the 1930s, where it remains a landmark to this day).
Astor left New York in 1891, before the opening of the Waldorf Hotel, and amusingly exclaimed, “America is not a fit place for a gentleman to live.” When he arrived in London, Astor first rented Lansdowne House in Berkeley Square, where he resided until 1893. He later built his own mansion, rendered in the Neo-Gothic style, near Victoria Embankment in central London. In 1903, Astor acquired Hever Castle in Kent, about 30 miles south of London. Its complete historical restoration, overseen by the noted architect Frank Loughborough Pearson, and the creation of the Italian Garden on its grounds – which included employing 800 men to excavate a 38 acre lake on the site – is perhaps Astor’s most enduring legacy.
Hever Castle’s oldest portions date back to the 13th century. Anne’s marriage to Henry led to the annulment of his first marriage and set the English Reformation into motion. Over the ensuing centuries, Hever passed through a succession of owners and eventually fell into disrepair; by the late 19th century, it was largely uninhabitable, with leaking roofs and an overflowing moat. Astor conceived of Hever’s potential and possessed the means to restore it to its former glory.
Italy always captivated Astor, who sought to incorporate aspects of that country and its history into the restorations of Hever. Astor first encountered Italy when he served as American Minister to Italy from 1882-1885. In Rome, Astor rented a suite in the Rospigliosi Palace and “had so little to do” that he could devote himself to “archaeology, pictures, Renaissance history, and excursions in the thrill and glory of the Campagna” (p. 67 in C. Aslet, “Hever Castle, Kent – II, The Seat of Lord Astor of Hever, Country Life, 8 January 1981). It was during his stint in Rome that Astor first began acquiring ancient Roman and Neoclassical sculpture and architectural elements. The full vision of Astor’s acquisitions would not be on full display until the completion of his restorations of Hever in 1908.
The journalist George Smalley saw the Italian Garden constructed by Astor as a necessity, stating that “without an Italian Garden and without an atmosphere of Italy about him he could not live” (quoted in C. Aslet, op. cit., p. 69). In The Pall Mall Magazine (“Hever Restored,” vol. XXXIX, no. 165, January 1907, p. 15), the author, simply referred to as “A Visitor,” but almost certainly Astor himself, described the Italian Gardens as such:
Beyond is the new Italian Garden, to which we quickly make our way, for it is a most remarkable feature of what I may call the new Hever. I will ask you to imagine on one side a high wall of the nicest masonry, composed of yellowish stone, stretching away from an eighth of a mile, whose long line is broken by rounded pavilions and niches…I cannot imagine a more delicious retreat than this long cloister, some of whose bays are fashioned into rockeries, where cool fountains play, and fish swim, and plants scent the air.
The grounds of the Italian Garden were dispersed with the statuary he acquired, including ancient Roman sarcophagi, sculptural groups, furniture, and architectural elements. William’s grandson, Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, later described the collection as “interesting as a whole because it illustrates that complicated interweaving of Greek, Asiatic, Etruscan and Roman strands which marked the transition from Paganism to Christianity. The myths of the Greeks and Romans are just as important as their history for understanding what they believed and thought and expressed in writing and in visual art. These myths were inextricably interwoven with the whole fabric of their public and private lives, and the products of their imagination have continued to inspire fresh creative efforts which amount to a substantial part of our whole cultural inheritance” (see G. Astor, op. cit., 1979).
These two porphyry columns, along with six others Astor acquired, adorned the perimeter of the Half Moon Pond, a section of the Italian Garden. Gavin later claimed that William had “a special regard” for these columns and discussed the provenance and history of the group (see Astor, op. cit., 1969): two of them with clawed bases “were in the vestry annexed to the Chapel of the Conservatorio della Mendicanti in Via del Colosseo No. 61, in Rome” and are thought to have originated from the “celebrated Temple of Venus.” He further writes, “In 1905 Mr. Astor added two more Roman columns, one in porphyry and one in settebasi marble” and that “the remaining four columns,” which include the present pair, “were acquired at about the same time.”
Following William’s death in 1919, Hever Castle was inherited by his son, John Jacob Astor V, 1st Baron Astor of Hever, before descending to Gavin. In 1963, Gavin opened Hever to the public for the first time but the cost of running it proved to be too expensive and the castle and its grounds were sold to its current owner, John Guthrie and Broadland Properties, in 1983. The ancient statuary at Hever, including this pair of columns, was largely dispersed at Sotheby’s, London in July of that year, although some antiquities did remain in-situ, including a Roman Marble Group of a Nymph and a Satyr, last offered at Bonhams, London, on 7 December 2023. Today, sculptures from Hever can be found in public and private collections across Europe and the United States, including a Roman Porphyry Support for a Water Basin, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1992.11.70, see no. 495 in C.A. Picón, Art of The Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome).
These porphyry columns, once symbols of imperial Rome’s majesty, found new meaning in Astor’s vision for Hever. Their placement in the Italian Garden speaks not only to the enduring allure of classical antiquity but also to Astor’s own aspirations as an American heir seeking to craft his own Italianate world in the London countryside. These columns embody a dialogue between past and present, between the grandeur of the Roman Empire and the refined taste of a Gilded Age collector determined to leave his mark on one of Britain's most historic castles.