Attributed to Diederich Nicolaus Anderson (died 1767)
Pair of Griffin Candlesticks after the design by William Chambers (1726-96), circa 1760-65
Ormolu with a white marble base
35 x 15 x 7.5 cm
13 ¾ x 6 x 3 in
13 ¾ x 6 x 3 in
JL19
Further images
Provenance
Countess Mona von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1897-1983), Ville II Fortino, Vivara e Mona, Capri,Sold Sotheby's, Florence, 6-7 April 1987, lot 590,
with Kenneth Neame Ltd., London
Private Collection, Switzerland
Literature
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 157-58.N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', Furniture History, 1990, vol. XXVI, p. 67-89.
J. Bourne and V. Brett, Lighting in the Domestic Interior, London, 1991, p. 122, figs. 411 & 413.
J. Harris and M. Snodin, eds., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III, New Haven, 1996, pp. 160-62.
N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, the Blenheim pair illustrated pp. 40 & 41
Sir William Chambers (1726-1796), the architect to King George III, designed these candlesticks and the design is published in the third edition of his Treatise on the Decorative Parts of...
Sir William Chambers (1726-1796), the architect to King George III, designed these candlesticks and the design is published in the third edition of his Treatise on the Decorative Parts of Civil Architecture of 1791. (see https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/various-ornamental-utensils-pl-1.). 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' Also, a hand-coloured presentation sketch by John Yenn (d. 1821), who served as Chambers's assistant and pupil from 1764 to 1771, is held at the Victoria & Albert Museum (see https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O780971/architectural-design-sir-william-chambers/).
Much of the decorative vocabulary featured on these candlesticks reappears elsewhere in Chambers's strongly Franco-Italian influenced oeuvre. The garlands that hang across each griffin's shoulders and chest find close parallel in Chambers's designs for the pair of 'Kings' candle vases from the Royal Garniture, executed by Matthew Boulton from 1770-71 and now in Windsor Castle (illustrated op. cit., p. 88, fig. 24).
An excellent comparison of the present candlesticks can be drawn with another pair at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Based upon his examination of their quality and means of manufacture, Sir Nicholas Goodison has persuasively argued that the Blenheim pair was executed by Chambers's preferred metal-worker, Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, prior to the latter's untimely death in 1767. An examination of Chambers's personal correspondence from this time reveals that Anderson's workshop was largely responsible for producing many of the high quality ormolu ornaments that Chambers's commissions demanded. For example, the large medal cabinet designed and commissioned by Chambers for the Earl of Charlemont in 1767-68 (sold by the Earl of Iveagh, Elveden Hall, Christie's House Sale, 22 May 1989, lot 843 and now at Somerset House, London) has an interior embellished with ormolu mounts from Anderson's workshop. Upon Anderson's death, some of these ornaments remained unfinished, though Chambers wrote on 2 October 1767 that they had been 'cast and his man will finish them as well as he could have done himself' (N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', op. cit., p. 75).
Models of the griffins were evidently loaned by Chambers to another prominent London workshop around this time. A closely related pearwood model now in the Wedgwood Archives in Barlaston probably served as the prototype for Wedgwood's versions in Jasper and Basalt which began to appear in 1771. This, along with Wedgwood's own comments to Bentley in that year, would suggest the designs and/or models had been passed by Chambers directly to Wedgwood (Harris and Snodin, ibid, pp. 159-160). It is further interesting to note that a pair of ivory griffin candlesticks made in Murshidabad, India, in the late eighteenth century, formerly in the Gerstenfeld Collection also follow the Chambers pattern (see E. Lennox-Boyd, Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection, London 1998, cat. no. 60, colour plate 106).
Four other pairs of griffin candlesticks are known: one pair was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 12 November 1998, lot 5; the Blenheim pair already mentioned above; 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); a pair, lacking some elements, sold at Christies New York on 19th April 2001.
Much of the decorative vocabulary featured on these candlesticks reappears elsewhere in Chambers's strongly Franco-Italian influenced oeuvre. The garlands that hang across each griffin's shoulders and chest find close parallel in Chambers's designs for the pair of 'Kings' candle vases from the Royal Garniture, executed by Matthew Boulton from 1770-71 and now in Windsor Castle (illustrated op. cit., p. 88, fig. 24).
An excellent comparison of the present candlesticks can be drawn with another pair at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. Based upon his examination of their quality and means of manufacture, Sir Nicholas Goodison has persuasively argued that the Blenheim pair was executed by Chambers's preferred metal-worker, Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, prior to the latter's untimely death in 1767. An examination of Chambers's personal correspondence from this time reveals that Anderson's workshop was largely responsible for producing many of the high quality ormolu ornaments that Chambers's commissions demanded. For example, the large medal cabinet designed and commissioned by Chambers for the Earl of Charlemont in 1767-68 (sold by the Earl of Iveagh, Elveden Hall, Christie's House Sale, 22 May 1989, lot 843 and now at Somerset House, London) has an interior embellished with ormolu mounts from Anderson's workshop. Upon Anderson's death, some of these ornaments remained unfinished, though Chambers wrote on 2 October 1767 that they had been 'cast and his man will finish them as well as he could have done himself' (N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', op. cit., p. 75).
Models of the griffins were evidently loaned by Chambers to another prominent London workshop around this time. A closely related pearwood model now in the Wedgwood Archives in Barlaston probably served as the prototype for Wedgwood's versions in Jasper and Basalt which began to appear in 1771. This, along with Wedgwood's own comments to Bentley in that year, would suggest the designs and/or models had been passed by Chambers directly to Wedgwood (Harris and Snodin, ibid, pp. 159-160). It is further interesting to note that a pair of ivory griffin candlesticks made in Murshidabad, India, in the late eighteenth century, formerly in the Gerstenfeld Collection also follow the Chambers pattern (see E. Lennox-Boyd, Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection, London 1998, cat. no. 60, colour plate 106).
Four other pairs of griffin candlesticks are known: one pair was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 12 November 1998, lot 5; the Blenheim pair already mentioned above; 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); a pair, lacking some elements, sold at Christies New York on 19th April 2001.
1
of
24