AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED BLUE JOHN WING-FIGURED CANDLE VASES BY MATTHEW BOULTON Circa 1772

each with a richly colored blue john ovoid body, strongly veined with bands of deep purple alternating with lighter bands of fluorspar, the cover surmounted by a pineapple finial above a collar of spreading leaves over a beaded collar above further spreading stiff leaves, inset within a stepped reeded collar and reversing to form a candle-holder, the fluted cup issuing from stiff leaves above a leafy spreading foot, the sides mounted with winged females, their ribbon-tied hair with a bun and wearing strings of pearls with a ring clasp hung with chains and with curved ribbed supports ornamented with foliage, their heads supporting curved fluted candle-arms issuing from scrolled-leaf sockets, the fluted and molded cups above circular drip-pans with gadrooned edges above spreading stiff leaves, the bodies encircled with guilloche-ornamented rings with foliate clasps at each side to support the chains, the base of the body within a foliate cup above a fluted spreading socle with a gadrooned ring at the base above a square socle on a further blue john veneered plinth.

Anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, July 10, 1998, lot 61

 

Ottomeyer, Pröschel, et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. 1, p. 270, no. 4.10.3

Sotheby’s, Art at Auction 1997-1998, 1998, p. 142

The form of the present pair of candle vases corresponds closely to a manuscript design in volume I of a group of nine books containing a large collection of sketches of silver, plate and ormolu ornaments illustrating pieces produced at Soho, Birmingham, by the firm of Boulton and Fothergill. The first one dates from the late 1760s, the volumes continuing until the 1850s. Unfortunately, many of the earlier drawings were cut and remounted in the 19th century, interrupting and obliterating their original numbering and destroying the sequence of their original manufacture. The colored sketch relating to the present pair is on page 156, but is not numbered. The nature of the body is not apparent, although it is clearly made of a mottled stone, the plinth appearing to be of white marble.

Matthew Boulton, who was described by Josiah Wedgwood as ‘the most complete manufacturer in England in metal’, was born in 1738, the son of a manufacturer of buckles and toys whose workshop was in Steelhouse Lane in Birmingham, moving to Snow Hill in 1731. He joined his father’s business at the age of fourteen which appears to have been one of the most important metal-working workshops in Birmingham at that time. His father died in 1759 and wishing to further expand his business, Boulton acquired in 1761 a lease on some land at Handsworth, together with Soho House and Soho Mill. Having built a warehouse and several workshops on this site, he proceeded to demolish and rebuild the mill. On Midsummer Day 1762 he formed a partnership with John Fothergill which was intended to allow Boulton more time to improve the manufactory and extend his range of products, while Fothergill would bring in the orders. At Soho, where new warehouses and workshops were erected in 1765, a wide range of pieces was manufactured including buttons, buckles, candle snuffers, earrings, and candlesticks in a variety of materials including brass, steel, pinchbeck and silver plate. The firm’s archives and Boulton’s own correspondence indicate that it was not until the end of 1767 that he decided to extend his production to include the production of ormolu mounts for vases. He had noted the success of Wedgwood in producing decorative vases and also that of French metalworkers who were ornamenting cheap vases purchased in London and then re-selling them in England. He told Wedgwood that ‘The artists have even come over to London, picked up all the old whimsical ugly things they could meet with, carried them to Paris, where they have mounted and ornamented them with metal, and sold them to the virtuosi of every nation, and particularly to Millords d’Anglise, for the greatest raritys’. Although his collaboration with Wedgwood was not successful, Boulton was now attracted by the various marbles and fluorspars, particularly blue john, that was being mined in the Castleton area of Derbyshire. In the spring of 1769 he visited Derbyshire where he made contact with the principal owners of the various mines and mineral agents. From John Platt he purchased fourteen tons of blue john, purchasing another two casks of this material nine months later from Robert Howe, who promised his best to purchase any ‘very large, very good, or very beautiful pieces which might be found’. In addition to blue john, other materials mentioned in the archives include stone, glass, gilt, metal, china, lacquer and japan. By 1769 Boulton’s aristocratic clients for his mounted vases included Sir William Guise, Lord Willoughby de Broke, Lord Scarsdale, Thomas Anson, the Earl of Shelburne, Henry Hoare and the Marquess of Rockingham. In March 1770 the Dowager Princess of Wales ordered two pairs of candle vases from Boulton, followed by several orders from the Queen herself. In an effort to gain further attention from society, an exhibition and sale was held at James Christie’s saleroom in Pall Mall, an example of Boulton’s desire to sell directly to his aristocratic patrons rather than relying on middle-men. From the Boulton archives it appears that there were three forms of vases utilizing ‘winged figures’ as shown in the present example. One was in the form of cassolettes or perfume burners, the ovoid vase bodies ornamented with stiff leaves, and supported on tripods with winged females above legs with claw toes; the covers were either pierced or in the form of candle-holders and a small burner was suspended by chains below. Two forms of bases are recorded, one in the form of a short triangular stepped plinth, the other in the form of a triangular pedestal ornamented with rams’ heads at the corners and with classical figures (see Goodison, op. cit., figs. 362–65). The second was in the form of a simple ovoid body either with a reversible cover with a candleholder or issuing two scrolled candle arms (see Goodison, op. cit., figs. 371–73). The third model is represented by the present pair, the figures differing slightly from the perfume burners and cassolettes by having raised wings, an extra bead necklace and slight differences to the hair. These various models of ‘winged vases’ are first recorded in the archives in early 1772, variants of the present pair being acquired by, amongst others, the Duke of Northumberland, the Earl of Sefton, and Robert Child at Osterley. Bodies of blue john, white marble or opaque white glass are recorded, some with low plinths, in ormolu, white marble or blue john as in the present pair. Others are raised on ormolu plinths inset with blue john (see Goodison, op. cit., figs. 365–73). The cost of these appears to have varied between twelve and fourteen guineas, obviously dependant on the material of the bodies and type of base. From the archives it appears that they were still in production in 1784. The present pair is notable for the rich color and striations of the body, and the unusual use of blue john on the bases. The ormolu retains its original gilding and is finely cast and chiselled.

See:

Nicholas Goodison,  Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002

Country Life, September 5, 2002, Anthony Coleridge, ‘When Vases were the Rage’, pp. 146-147

The Magazine Antiques, Tessa Murdoch, ‘London Ormolu Lighting  from George II to George IV’, pp. 92-999, pl. 11