Circle of Thomas Hope (1769-1831) English, circa 1800 After the Antique

George Greville. 2nd Earl of Warwick (1746-1816);
Janine Angela Greville, Countess of Warwick, Rome

Overall the condition of the Blue John is good, with dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The proper left front paw may be an antiquity. There is a fissure running through the proper right arm. There are also fissures running through the middle of the back, across the body. There appear to be some old restorations to these fissures, another area of restoration at the joint of the proper left front paw, and another small area of restoration at the side of the proper right arm. There are a few smaller chips and abrasions in particular to the tail at the back. There is veining to the marble throughout, consistent with the material and there are a few naturally occuring inclusions. There are some small chips and abrasions to the alabaster and black marble base, in particular to the corners.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

As the only known sculpture in Blue John, this Recumbent Lion is extraordinary for its quality, provenance and rarity. It would appear to have been commissioned by George Greville, second Earl of Warwick, who mentions it in his inventory of 1806 as ‘a Lyon of Derbyshire Spar on a pedestal’. It is recorded again in a 1924 inventory of ‘articles of national or historical interest’ where it is described as a ‘Lion in Blue John on white and black marble base’ situated in The Great Hall of Warwick Castle. The Warwick Castle Collection also included the famous Warwick Vase, which had been discovered during an excavation of Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. The Warwick Vase was acquired by George Greville’s uncle, Sir William Hamilton, whose wife Emma was the mistress of Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Blue John is a rare natural variety of calcium fluorite. It was first recorded in the Castleton area of Derbyshire, England, in the late seventeenth century, which today remains the only discovered quarry of the stone. Long before the appreciation of Blue John as a valuable material for architectural ornaments and decorative objects in the 18^th century, the ancient Romans prized its shimmering qualities. Pliny the Elder described a soft rock with a range of colours, naming it ‘murrhine’. A legendary tale from this time records how Petronius, author of the Satyricon, on recognising that death was inevitable severed his own veins, but only after breaking his prized murrhine dipper in order that his nemesis Nero could not enjoy it after him. Emperor Augustus, too, is recorded to have treasured murrhine above all else, selecting to keep only one murrhine vase above all of his golden vessels (Suetonius 2.71). Just two significant objects in Roman Blue John survive as testament to ancient appreciation of the stone: both drinking vessels and both on show in the Roman Empire room at the British Museum (inv. nos. GR 1971.4-19.1 and GR 2003.12-2.1).

Blue John is extremely difficult to carve and cannot be chiselled due to its brittle nature. The present sculpture with its sensitive detail defining the lion’s form would have taken weeks, possibly even months, to complete by a laborious process of hand-grinding using bits of abrasive stone. A particularly remarkable addition to this process is the apparent inclusion of ancient fragments in the present lion. Dr Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator of the British Museum, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, after close inspection of the darker elements of the lion’s paws, concluded that this was indeed possible. Precedence for this can be found in Franzoni’s animal sculptures, in the Sala degli Animali in the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican, many of which also incorporate ancient fragments (González-Palacios, op. cit. p. 249).

The lion has long been used in religious and stately iconography as a symbol of nobility and strength; Sotheby’s London has a representation of Sekhmet, a lioness deity, adorning its front entrance. It is in the visual vocabulary of Ancient Egypt where the crouching lion is particularly preeminent. The grand Egyptian lions at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, made of basalt and over two thousand years old, bear striking similarity to the present work in their recumbent pose and unyielding forward gaze.

Eminent patron, collector, designer and writer, Thomas Hope, revived ancient iconography in his designs which would become the seminal aesthetics of Regency England. During his Grand Tour of Europe, from 1787 to 1795, Thomas Hope was exposed to the exotic colours and objects of Italy, Egypt and the Near East. When he acquired a palatial house in London, he modelled the decor on the traditional forms that he had seen abroad, and revolutionised interior design forever; ‘interior decoration’ was in fact as a phrase introduced to the English language by Thomas Hope in his book Household Furniture and Interior Decoration. Two particular settees, designed by Hope, are adorned on their four edges by recumbent lions. One settee is now held in the Farringdon Collection and the other can be found at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. These settees were placed in Thomas Hope’s Egyptian room, where he kept his Egyptian works and those with Egyptian motifs. Hope’s lions all share with the present Recumbent Lion the same lithe bodies and twisting tails, geometric manes and imposing ears. Noteworthy is the suggestion that the castings for the Farringdon Collection settee were executed by Giuseppe Boschi, whose study of the ancient Egyptian basalt lions on the Capitoline Hill is today in the Victoria and Albert Museum (op. cit. pp. 392).

The present sculpture is an especially fine example of the tastes of Regency England, in tune with the enlightened originality of Thomas Hope, who innovated by virtue of the antique and the Oriental. Its distinctively British quality is in its material, the rare and brilliant Blue John. This Recumbent Lion is cut from a block of the Old Tor vein of Blue John, carefully selected for its intrinsic rich colouration which simulates the lion’s textured fur and mane. The sculpture’s history in the distinguished Warwick Castle Collection, reflects the enduring regard for the most accomplished of Regency style works of fine art. It would make an extraordinary addition to both public and private collections on account of its uniqueness and quality: it is a remarkable sculpture to be offered to the art market.

RELATED LITERATURE
D. Watkin and P. Hewat-Jaboor (eds.), Thomas Hope. Regency Designer, exh. cat. The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, Annandale-on-Hudson, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2008, pp. 392-7, no. 76; A. González-Palacios, Il serraglio di pietra. La sala degli animali in Vaticano, Rome, 2013, p. 249, no. 105; T.D. Ford, Derbyshire Blue John, Ashbourne, 2005