Lot 827
  • 827

AN EXTREMELY RARE AND IMPORTANT CAST-BRASS AND ‘SURREY ENAMEL’ TRUMPET-BASE CANDLESTICK, ATTRIBUTED TO ANTHONY HATCH AND STEPHEN PILCHERD, LONDON, ENGLAND, CIRCA 1650 |

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
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Description

  • Height 9 in. by Diameter 6 3/8 in.; 22.9 by 16.2 cm.
comprised of four sections.

Provenance

Private Collection, London, June 2003;
Vogel Collection no. 725.

Condition

Exceptional overall condition. Superb patina. Pits and minor crazing to the glaze. Old areas of loss to the enamel.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

This exceptional candlestick belongs to a small group of cast and enameled brasswares, made in the second half of the seventeenth century, which includes stirrups, mirror-frames, fire-dogs, sconces, badges, and sword-hilts. The colors used for the enameling were limited to matt black, white, blue, green, yellow and red and the cast work is usually roughly finished. A few examples have Royalist associations including badges decorated with the Royal arms. The items in the group are distinguished by their method of production: the fields to be enameled were cast in the molds and not, as was more common; engraved (champlévé) or enclosed (cloisonné) after production. The comparatively small output of this work and the repeated use of identical models for the stems of candlesticks, firedogs, and cups suggests that these objects are the products of a single workshop.

These brasswares were for a long time referred to as 'Surrey Enamels' after the author Charles R. Beard ascribed their manufacture to a workshop in Esher, Surrey, but documentary evidence makes a strong case for their reattribution to the London workshops of Anthony Hatch and Stephen Pilcherd. Hatch, a prominent member of the Armourers' and Braziers' Company, supplied an enameled brass chimney-piece to the Company, which was placed in its Court Room. Many of the other enameled wares from this group were associated with fireplaces. Hatch is known to have worked with Pilcherd, another member of the Armourers' and Braziers' Company.

Despite their rough-and-ready appearance, such enameled brasswares usually hail from prestigious private collections, suggesting that they were expensive and the workshop that produced them had a small but comparatively wealthy clientele. A nearly identical pair is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. nos. 64.101.1622 and 1623 (see Yvonne Hackenbroch, Bronzes Other Metalwork and Sculpture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1962), fig. 206, pl. 183).

For additional information see https://www.antiquemetalware.org.uk/2016/12/06/17th-century-mid-drip-enamelled-candlestick/,  Claude Blair. “Surrey Enamels Reattributed: Part 1.” Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, vol. 13, June 2005, pp. 2-9 and Claude Blair and Angus Patterson. “Surrey Enamels Reattributed: Part 2, An Illustrated List of Known Types.” Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, vol. 14, June 2006, pp. 10-21.