拍品专文
The arms are those of Coote, as borne by Sir Charles Henry Coote, 9th Baronet, born in 1794, who succeeded his kinsman, the last Earl of Mountrath, to his baronetcy but not to the earldom in 1802. These candelabra form part of a large service of plate dating from 1812 which was presumably ordered for his coming of age. In 1814 he married Caroline, daughter of John Whaley of Whaley Abbey, co. Wicklow. Sir Charles Coote rebuilt ballyfin, Mountrath, as "the grandest and most lavishly appointed early nineteenth century Classical house in Ireland" (M. Bence-Jones, ed., Burke's Guide to Country Homes: vol.I, Ireland, 1978, p.21), sold by the family in the 1920s and now a college run by the Patrician Brothers. The interior was appointed in the most magnificent taste with a wealth of rich plasterwork and scagliola columns. Sir Charles died in 1864.
Pieces from the Coote service which have appeared in recent years include a suite of salvers by William Burwash, sold in these Rooms, October 27, 1992, lots 218 and 219, eighteen dinner and eighteen soup plates sold October 19, 1981, lots 110 and 111, and a pair of chamber candlesticks by Story & Elliott sold October 30, 1991, lot 166 and illustrated in Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, new ed., 1985, p. 64, fig. 89.
These caryatid candelabra owe their inspiration to antique Roman examples, motifs of which were used by sixteenth century engravers. The lion's jamb and acanthus feet appear on a design for a candlestick by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, circa 1550 (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Ed. 2f, vol. 6), which is in part based on designs by Giulio Romano. Similar antique tripod-based candlesticks were engraved by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in the eighteenth century. More importantly, however, these candlesticks owe their form to the passion for Egyptian motifs which swept Europe following Napoleon's Egyptian campaign and the subsequent publication of Vivant Denon's books on Egypt (see footnote to lot 245). The form of the present pair is similar to a magnificent series of twenty-four in the Royal Collection at Windsor, to other examples made for the Prince Regent's brother, the Duke of Cumberland, and to a pair on pedestal bases by Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith, 1806/9, made for the Earl of Darlington and now in the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Writing of the latter pair, Timothy Schroder has remarked, "The caryatid candelabrum was one of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell's grandest lines in lighting equipment" (The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, 1988, p. 356). A pair of white candelabra by Scott and Smith, identical to the present pair, made in 1805 for Baron de Worms, was sold by Sotheby's, New York, October, 22, 1993, lot 316.
Pieces from the Coote service which have appeared in recent years include a suite of salvers by William Burwash, sold in these Rooms, October 27, 1992, lots 218 and 219, eighteen dinner and eighteen soup plates sold October 19, 1981, lots 110 and 111, and a pair of chamber candlesticks by Story & Elliott sold October 30, 1991, lot 166 and illustrated in Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, new ed., 1985, p. 64, fig. 89.
These caryatid candelabra owe their inspiration to antique Roman examples, motifs of which were used by sixteenth century engravers. The lion's jamb and acanthus feet appear on a design for a candlestick by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, circa 1550 (Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Ed. 2f, vol. 6), which is in part based on designs by Giulio Romano. Similar antique tripod-based candlesticks were engraved by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in the eighteenth century. More importantly, however, these candlesticks owe their form to the passion for Egyptian motifs which swept Europe following Napoleon's Egyptian campaign and the subsequent publication of Vivant Denon's books on Egypt (see footnote to lot 245). The form of the present pair is similar to a magnificent series of twenty-four in the Royal Collection at Windsor, to other examples made for the Prince Regent's brother, the Duke of Cumberland, and to a pair on pedestal bases by Digby Scott and Benjamin Smith, 1806/9, made for the Earl of Darlington and now in the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Writing of the latter pair, Timothy Schroder has remarked, "The caryatid candelabrum was one of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell's grandest lines in lighting equipment" (The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, 1988, p. 356). A pair of white candelabra by Scott and Smith, identical to the present pair, made in 1805 for Baron de Worms, was sold by Sotheby's, New York, October, 22, 1993, lot 316.