A pair of Regency plaster urn stands 19th century

Towards the end of the 18th century and into the first half of the 19th century, London saw a considerable increase in the number of plaster workshops within the city. The majority of these shops were not producing original works but rather copied earlier works. The phenomenal interest created by those returning with artefacts from their 'Grand Tour' and the earlier discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum fuelled the interest in the 'Antique'.  Quick to capitalise on this opportunity many workshops began taking casts. While it has not been possible at present to identify the actual maker or the source of the design, there are strong similarities to the bases that appear in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's etchings, one to the jamb of a chimney piece and the other on a stand each illustrated in J. Wilton-Ely, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Complete Etchings, San Francisco, 1994, vol. II, figs 861 and 991.

A table lamp by James Deville, London, dated 1806, with a similar base to the present lot is in the Temple Newsam Collection, Leeds and is illustrated as pl.728, Volume III, Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, 1998. For a further discussion on plaster stands and other related examples, see T. Clifford, `The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-Classical Era in Britain', Journal of the History of Collections, 4, No.1 (1992) pp.39-65.