A George III gilt bronze and white marble perfume burner by Matthew Boulton, last quarter 18th century

Matthew Boulton was the most significant worker of gilt bronze and silver in eighteenth-century Britain, rivalling the great French bronziers of the era in creating works of exquisite quality and craftsmanship. In 1767, he was described by fellow member of the Lunar Society Josiah Wedgwood as “the most complete manufacturer in England in metal”, and both George III and Catherine the Great numbered among his clients. He was also an active inventor and engineer, supplying the Royal Mint with their equipment and also forming a business partnership with James Watt, producer of the steam engine. 

This delicate model brings together characteristic elements from two of Boulton’s well-documented models. One of them features a similar moulded tri-form base with a central rosette on which rest three terms in the form of winged female figures with chain necklaces, and with lids and finials to the base with the same foliate chasing as the present lot. A pair of this model are on display in the Dining Room of Soho House, the house museum for Boulton in Birmingham,¹ while another is in the collection at Temple Newsam, Leeds.² At auction, a pair with a plinth belonging to Viscount Villiers sold at Christie’s London, 17 November 1994, lot 26, while two pairs were offered as lots 52 and 53 at Christie’s New York, 17 October 2008. This model is also pictured in The Dictionary of English Furniture.³

Several notable elements of the present lot are also taken from a second well-known Boulton model. In contrast to the solid gilt-bronze of the above model, this one often has a body in a different material, usually in blue john or white opaque glass. This model features the same guilloche band circling the vase as the present lot; it also shares the winged female figures with both the present lot and the above-mentioned model, though shaped around the vase and not as supports. A drawing for this model exists in Boulton’s Pattern Book,⁴ and two pairs of this model are at Osterley Park: one pair with white opaque glass (NT 771991.2) and one pair with blue john (NT 772063.1). Another pair are in the collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (2002M26).

Decorative elements of this design are also echoed in other pieces across Boulton’s oeuvre: the necklaced female terms, for instance, appear on a similar tripod stand for the perfume burners that were sold at Christie’s New York, 11 June 2010, lot 439.

¹ These are visible on Soho House’s website at <https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/soho-house/highlights/the-lunar-society> [accessed 25^th October 2023] and are also pictured in Nicholas Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p.358, fig. 362.

² Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978, vol II, p.385, fig. 510.

³ Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., Wappingers’ Falls NY, 1986, vol III, p.16, fig. 2.

⁴ Reproduced in Goodison, ibid., p.361, fig.370.