Lot 34
  • 34

A pair of George III Anglo-Indian carved ivory griffin-form candlesticks, Murshidabab, late 18th Century, after the design by Sir William Chambers

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • ivory
  • 44cm. high, 24cm. wide, 15cm. deep; 19 ½in., 9 ½in., 6in.
with leaf carved nozzles and foliate drip pans with turned and beaded socles upon the griffin heads, the griffins seated upon oval, leaf-carved and beaded bases with recessed tiger-masks supporting ring-drops on ribbon-tied and reeded mouldings, the underside of each with indistinct ink inscription 'PN Philips / ..Park'?

Provenance

By Repute Warren Hastings, Daylesford, Oxfordshire.
Purchased from William Redford, London.

Exhibited

Richmond, Virginia, 1983.

Literature

E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, cat. no. 60, col. pl. 106.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', Furniture History, 1990, vol. XXVI, p. 67-89.
N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 157-58.
J. Harris and M. Snodin, eds., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III, New Haven, 1996, pp. 160-62.
J. Bourne and V. Brett, Lighting in the Domestic Interior, London, 1991, p. 122, figs. 411 & 413.

Condition

Griffin A: In excellent original condition, the ivory displaying typical craquelure throughout and yellowish in colour commensurate with age. There are two very minor chips to the ribbon of the fascia base. The socle of the nozzle probably with a very old replacement; the drip pan with three small repaired breaks to the edges. Griffin B: In excellent conserved condition, with a repaired break the tip of one wing and a further small repaired break to the protruding clump of feathers. The ivory displaying typical craquelure throughout and yellowish in colour commensurate with age. The tail with a small repaired break to the tip. A tiny loss to a section of ribbon and movement along the joints of the fascia form base.
"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."

Catalogue Note

The attribution of the design of these griffin candlesticks has long been securely given to Sir William Chambers (1726-1796), the architect to George III. Their design is published in the third edition of his Treatise on the Decorative Parts of Civil Architecture of 1791. Chambers describes the designs on this plate as including 'ornamental utensils, designed for the Earl of Charlemont, for Lord Melbourne, and for some decorations for my own house'. A beautifully executed hand-coloured presentation sketch by John Yenn (d. 1821), who served as Chambers's assistant and pupil from 1764 to 1771, shows a much earlier version of this design with minor variations such as on the decoration of the plinth. Both the design and the engraved pattern are reproduced here. Much of the decorative vocabulary featured on these candlesticks reappears elsewhere in Chambers's strongly Franco-Italian influenced oeuvre.

Several examples of this model appear in ormolu and are attributed to Chambers' preferred bronzier Diederich Nicolaus Anderson. These include examples a pair sold anonymously at Christie's London, 12 November 1998, lot 5 (£155,500); a pair at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, a third pair with Egyptian porphyry bases with the National Trust, Hinton Ampner House, Hampshire (illustrated in J. Harris and M. Snodin, ibid, p. 162, fig. 242); and a pair sold Sotheby's Florence, 6-7 April 1987, lot 590. All these would have been made prior to Anderson's death in 1767 and it seems likely that Chambers then passed his design to Josiah Wedgwood who produced this model in his Basaltware.

A single ivory example, closely matching the ormolu examples and comparative to the current examples but without the elaborate lion mask bases which support the current griffins was sold The Property of a Gentleman, Sotheby's London, 4th December 2013, lot 450, £75,650.

In his essay on the ivory pieces in the Gerstenfeld Collection, op. cit., Amin Jaffer suggests that while it is not inconceivable that these ivory examples were produced from a model in another medium, the inclusion of the medallion on the chain around the neck of the griffin does not appear on ceramic examples while the drip-pans and socket differ from ormolu comparables, and perhaps suggests that these were produced from the detailed drawings.

Warren Hastings, Governor-General of British India

Warren Hastings amassed a large quantity of ivory furniture including one of the most celebrated suites of ivory furniture made in the Murshidabad in the second half of the eighteenth century, a part of which was sold at Sotheby's London, 4th December 2013, lots 545-547. The suite was commissioned by Mani Begum, the widow of Mir Jafar, Nawab of Murshidabad and presented to Warren Hastings, Governor General of Bengal.  A number of letters between Hastings, his wife Marian and Nesbitt-Thompson, their agent in Calcutta indicate that Hastings received a number of gifts of ivory furniture from Mani Begum, both whilst in India and after his return to England in 1784. Indeed, the 1799 inventory of Hastings’ country estate Daylesford in Gloucestershire, which he acquired in 1788, lists a relatively meagre amount of ivory furniture in comparison to the amount that was later offered in the Daylesford sale by Hastings’ son-in-law, General Sir Charles Imhoff  in 1853.

Whilst the current candlesticks are not apparently recorded in the Daylesford sale that does not preclude them having formed part of the interiors which included a vast array of ivory furniture.