拍品专文
The design of this castor is almost certainly the result of collaboration between A. W. N. Pugin, architect of the Gothic revival, and John Gawler Bridge, nephew and partner of John Bridge. In 1827, J. G. Bridge met Pugin, then age fifteen, at the British Museum's Print Room, where Bridge was searching for designs for antique plate. On March 19th of the same year, Pugin and one of the Bridges went to auction of antique and modern silver of the Duke of York, described in Pugin's autobiographical notes, "attended with Mr. J. Bridge the sale of the duke of York plate at Christie's Rooms, King Street, St. James's." Pugin was at the same time engaged by John Bridge's firm, Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, to execute designs for silver. In this period Pugin had already established a style characterized by light Gothic tracery, exhibited in his well-known designs for the renovation of George IV's apartments at Windsor Castle. Five of Pugins's designs for altar plate for Windsor survive, four of which bear the signatures of both Pugin and Bridge: "A. Pugin Junr. Invent. et fecit 1827" (recto) and "J.G. Bridge" (verso).
The neo-Gothic cover of this castor bears strong stylistic similarities to Pugin's designs for the silver, furniture, and metalwork of Windsor (illustrated in Alexandra Wedgwood, A. W. N. Pugin and the Pugin Family, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985, plates 63, 64, and 65). The body of this castor reflects Rundell Bridge's interest in antiquarian styles, and is based on prototypes by de Lamerie and Kandler. This castor may be a unique survival of Pugin's work for Rundell's, as the Windsor designs in silver were never executed (op. cit., p. 245). Pugin later renounced his early technique of applying Gothic architectural tracery to otherwise contemporary forms. By the mid-1830's, when he published design books for furniture and base metals, Pugin's style had become completely archaeological, with both the forms and decoration literally Gothic. See also Shirley Bury, "The Lengthening Shadow of Rundell's," Connoisseur, March 1966, fig. 12, pp. 157-158, and Shirley Bury et al., Victorian Church Art, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971, fig. B30, pp. 20-21.
The neo-Gothic cover of this castor bears strong stylistic similarities to Pugin's designs for the silver, furniture, and metalwork of Windsor (illustrated in Alexandra Wedgwood, A. W. N. Pugin and the Pugin Family, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985, plates 63, 64, and 65). The body of this castor reflects Rundell Bridge's interest in antiquarian styles, and is based on prototypes by de Lamerie and Kandler. This castor may be a unique survival of Pugin's work for Rundell's, as the Windsor designs in silver were never executed (op. cit., p. 245). Pugin later renounced his early technique of applying Gothic architectural tracery to otherwise contemporary forms. By the mid-1830's, when he published design books for furniture and base metals, Pugin's style had become completely archaeological, with both the forms and decoration literally Gothic. See also Shirley Bury, "The Lengthening Shadow of Rundell's," Connoisseur, March 1966, fig. 12, pp. 157-158, and Shirley Bury et al., Victorian Church Art, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1971, fig. B30, pp. 20-21.