The Downing College Chandeliers
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- Carlton Hobbs LLC
The present chandeliers were designed by architect Peter Bicknell (1907-1995) and were originally installed in the Hall at Downing College, Cambridge, during a remodeling in the 1960s.
In addition to his career as an architect, Bicknell was a mountaineer, author, curator and teacher of architecture and art history during his lifetime. After his retirement from teaching in 1981, he mounted the exhibition Beauty, Horror and Immensity at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. An architectural partnership with H.C. Hughes, which began in the early 1930s, led to the design of numerous educational institutions, notably the Cambridge colleges including Downing College at which Bicknell was a Fellow.
- “Downing College,” Memorials of Cambridge 1847, F. Mackenzie & J. Le Keux.
Downing college was founded in 1800 by Sir George Downing, Third Baronet, whose will stated that his estates were to be used for a college if he or his heirs produced no issue. The first buildings were raised between 1807-1812, and the second group in 1818-1820, which included the Hall. Designed by William Wilkins, the neoclassical architecture comprises ionic columns, both inside and out, and was greatly informed by Wilkins’ travels in Greece.
The chandeliers are an interesting exercise in the fusion of English late classicism, as typified as the Regency style, and mid-20th century modernity. The classical references include a flaming urn, repeating anthemion decoration and applied with swan mounts. Whilst incorporating many of these elements of the classical repertoire, the chandelier is also imbued by a severe and angular quality, much in line with its time. Figure 1 depicts one of the chandeliers in situ in the Downing College Hall. The chandeliers were removed from the Hall in 2007 as part of a renovation project aimed at “restoring it to its original Georgian splendour.”
- A chandelier in situ in the Downing College Hall.
Masterpiece London 2011
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Carlton Hobbs, LLC is once again looking forward to exhibiting at the Masterpiece Fair in London, which opens at the Royal Hospital Chelsea next week, and we are very excited this year to be showing a group of works created abroad for the English and Continental markets. A careful blend of tradition and exoticism in these pieces is expressed in the combination of European forms with construction techniques unique to their native regions, namely the British colonies of East Asia and South America.
An extremely rare set of twelve George II carved walnut dining chairs, circa 1740, likely represents the largest extant group of chairs ordered in the Treaty port of Canton (present day Guangzhou) in the first half of the 18th century. While the design of the set represents the earliest model in the development of Chinese export chairs, taking the basic Queen Anne form of a shaped backsplat and cabriole legs, the construction of the chairs is distinctly Chinese with the carved motifs of an exotic character. The style of carving is closely related to an export cabinet in the Cophenhagen Museum of Art and Design, documented along with a set of twelve chairs in the “English fashion,” making it tempting to hypothesize that these chairs formed part of the same commission.
To the south, Chinese craftsmen created European-influenced furniture of great originality in the Straits Settlements, established by the British East India Company in the Malaccan Straits circa 1826. A rare carved teakwood breakfront on view with Carlton Hobbs represents the variety of Straits Chinese furniture modeled on, or related to, English designs dating from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Although these pieces were clearly Anglicized, their Chinese origins are recognizable by the type of wood used, construction methods and Eastern decorative motifs, which include carved openwork of Asian inspired foliate designs and vases. Although wealthy Chinese patrons generally did not have a taste for European-inspired pieces, the Straits Chinese were an exception, becoming “enthusiastic customers” of the Anglicized furniture.
Along with furniture forms, colonial artists also emulated the European style of portraiture, but often with strong references to their own traditions and subjects. An extremely rare painting of a black artist completing a portrait of a white female aristocrat represents this fusion of metropole and indigenous concepts. The painting, possibly executed in Brazil, speaks to position and integration of slaves in 18th century society. Here, the artist is dressed in an antiquated, fanciful costume and wears an earring, silver collar and arm cuff, denoting his servants/slave status. Usually, black male figures appear in portraits of this period in attendance to their masters, serving as status symbols, however, in the case of this painting, the relationship is indicated in a unique and far less subservient manner. The origin of the painting is as yet uncertain, however, strong clues exist as witnessed in the urban landscape seen through the window in the painting. The tiled roofs of this lively and distinctive reddish-pink color are specific to Portugal and colonial Brazil, which was under Portuguese rule until 1822. The slave population in Brazil was the largest in the world, and spanned four centuries, however slaves in this country experienced a less severe lifestyle than those in other parts of the world.
Carlton Hobbs’ New York office will be open as usual from for the duration of the Fair, +1 212 423 9000. Additionally, Carlton and Stefanie can be reached directly at +1 347-603-3441 or at +1 646-710-0777, or by emailing Stefanie at stefanie@carltonhobbs.com.
Carlton Hobbs’ London showroom is located at 16 Bloomfield Terrace, off Pimlico Road and can be viewed any time by appointment.
This Cabinet is a Hole-in-One!
0This carved mahogany golf cabinet, circa 1910, is stamped Hindley and Wilkinson, London. It is apparently the only known item of fine antique furniture that is set with golf clubs as a decorative device. The design is very much derived from the Chippendale oeuvre with tapering Gothicized corner columns which have tightly conceived acanthus capitals. The paired carved golf clubs are wittily and imaginatively treated being in the form of crossed foliated “trophies.” The piece must have been a very costly special commission in its time and was presumably made for one of the early golfing professionals or a wealthy enthusiast.
Carlton Hobbs LLC.
The Wilkinson firm of furniture manufacturers founded by Joshua Wilkinson in 1778 passed through the hands of four Wilkinson generations over a period of one hundred and fifty years. From their Cheapside premises in London Wilkinson and Sons advertised themselves as a ‘Cabinet, Upholstery, Carpet and Looking Glass Warehouse’, and indicated that their stock included ‘down, goose and other feather beds; Turkey, Brussels, Wilton, Kidderminster and Scotch carpets; library, writing, ladies’ dressing, Pembroke card, and tea tables; cabriole, japanned and Windsor chairs etc.’ By the number of men employed it is evident that there was a fairly extensive manufacturing side to their business. The amount of insurance coverage also provides an indication that the enterprise was of substantial size. In 1788 stock and utensils were valued at 300 pounds out of a total insurance coverage of 1500 pounds.
- Detail of the cabinet.
In 1909 the firm’s Old Bond Street building was demolished, and the company, re-named Hindley and Wilkinson, relocated to 70/71 Welbeck Street. It is not known whether Frederick Wilkinson’s son Charles remained with the business, bringing in Hindley as a partner, or whether it was sold to Hindley who maintained the Wilkinson name for continuity. In any event, the business was eventually absorbed by Marshall & Snellgrove in about 1918.
“An Art Smith” And His Owls
0Last week we made an important discovery regarding a large sculpture of an owl in our collection!
Carlton Hobbs LLC collection.
While perusing a Belgian auction catalog, we came across a wrought iron sculpture of a cockerel on a branch and noticed that the treatment of the feathers and leaves were so similar to our owl that they must be by the same hand. Luckily, the rooster was signed: Van Boeckel.
Louis Van Boeckel (1857-1944) of Lier, Belgium, was one of the most important ornamental blacksmiths of his time. He was an apprentice to the Verwilt factory in Lier, but developed most of his skills as an artisan by himself. His work, including some of his important animal depictions, can be found in the Timmermanns-Opsomer-Haus Museum in Lier.
Van Boeckel’s numerous awards included the gold medal at the Exposition du Cercle Rubens (1890), le Prix de l’Art appliqué à la rue, Brussels (1893) and the Grande Médaille d’Or and title of Chevalier de l’ordre Royal du Cambodge at the Exposition Universelle in Paris (1900). He is also responsible for work on the grid of the city hall of Lier after 1890, the grave decorations for Czar Alexander III in St. Petersburg and Queen Marie-Henriette in Laeken, the staircases of honor of the Khedive Palace in Cairo and Benedictine monastery on Mount Olive, Jerusalem, parapets of National Bank of Athens, the cathedral of Santo Rio in Buenos Aires and the White House in Washington, D.C.
A magnificent five-light chandelier (pictured below), recently at auction in Germany, is extremely similar to our owl sculpture and further confirms its origin. The chandelier was stamped LVANBOECKEL on the left wing of the owl and was sold with its original invoice from 1929. With this piece of information, we were able to find an identical signature on our owl, confirming it’s maker and solidifying it’s place among the oeuvre of this celebrated master of wrought iron sculpture.
Van Boeckel’s work is very delicate and detailed, particularly after 1900, when he traded his decorative style for a much more imaginative manner of depiction. An article on the sculptor in the February 1907 issue of Technical Review describes him as having an “obliging disposition,” always eager to show visitors his work in progress. He replaced the bell pull of his studio in Lier with a small, forged iron tree branch and upon offering cigars to his guests, would rain blows upon a piece of iron until it was red hot enough to light them. His hearty good will was felt in a parting handshake: “the visitor feels that he is grasping the only hand in the world that can transform a piece of scrap iron into an art object the equal of any a jeweler has ever produced.”
Detail of owl. Carlton Hobbs LLC collection.
Regency Klismos
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The form of the present set of neoclassical chairs is derived from the klismos chair, a Greek invention that evolved from a simple throne. Splayed, sabre-form legs and uprights connected by a concave backrest are characteristics of these chairs, which became popular in the late-18th and 19th centuries for their gracefulness and lightness of form, as well as their reference to antiquity. The present chairs are illustrative of the variations on the klismos form where furniture is relieved of ornament in favor of simple lines more closely modeled on its classical forbears.
- Greek marble statue of Poseidioppos, resting on a klismos chair. Vatican.
The backrest of the chair takes the form of winged rectangle, or tabula ansata, a favorite form for votive tablets in imperial Rome. The ansate can be found on sarcophagi, soldiers’ shields and monuments, and often bears an epitaph or dedication. The chairs also feature a Greek key motif on the seat rail.
- Dedicatory plaque. Roman Britain, about AD 222-235. British Museum.
At the center of the backrest, the arms of Talbot of Devon is illustrated. The talbot is a now-extinct white hunting dog, believed to have originated in Normandy or England, often used in heraldry.
- Arms of Talbot of Devon.
Wedgwood that Stands the Test of (Telling) Time
0The present clock possibly combines the decorative talents of gifted 18th century artisans, namely Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton. Collaboration of this type occurred often; jasperware was mounted with cut-steel to make toys (the 18th century term for small, personal items) and furniture and decorative objects were mounted with jasperware. The neoclassic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries bore patrons of the arts with a taste dictated by antiquity, and the mounts of the clock, its shape and finial, uphold this neoclassical ideal.
Though Wedgwood produced large medallions, he set upon the market with smaller and more ornamental jasperware. His cameos and buttons, as they were called, were supplied for mounting to firms in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Woodstock, the chief centers of cut-steel production. One Birmingham manufacturer of steel toys was the industrialist Matthew Boulton. Boulton was both friend and business rival of Josiah Wedgwood and he framed Wedgwood cameos in steel for sword-hilts, buckles, and jewelry at his Soho factory. Dr. Anthony North, former Assistant Curator for the Metalwork, Silver and Jewellery Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has said of the present clock that “the mounts are clearly Wedgwood and Boulton – compelling factor in attributing the actual clock to Soho is the Neoclassical form and the curious steel feet, which are obviously Soho work.”
In the late 1700s, Wedgwood’s pottery was adapted for the purpose of creating interesting furnishings; he produced a number of urns and vases with clock faces, as the fashion at the time was for fancy clocks of all forms, and “Wedgwood jasper decorations were used on some clocks in other media during the late eighteenth century.” Benjamin Vullimay, a Swiss watch and clock maker working in Britain, fitted several of his clocks with Wedgwood cameos. Vuillamy’s clocks did not utilize the same cut-steel frames, but could nevertheless employ up to a dozen craftsmen with different areas of specialization. It is interesting to note that one clock, while it lacks a Wedgwood plaque, maintains a similarly austere shape and is topped with a related urn finial (Figure 1). It is probable that the maker of the present clock moved in the same production circles as Wedgwood, Boulton, and Vulliamy.
Figure 1
Another related clock belongs to the Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery Joseph Collection (Figure 2). This table clock is decorated with cut-steel and blue Wedgwood medallions. The reliefs of the jasper medallions on the front of the Nottingham clock are also“ classical in subject and the medallions on the side are of the same design as those at the bottom front corner of the [present] clock.” Similarities also extend to a strongly comparable clock face, urn-form finals and a plinth base resting on four cut-steel feet.
Figure 2
The Linton Park Table
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The present table, with its elegant shaped front, designed to represent Cupid’s bow, is an unusual development of the side table as typically found in giltwood examples by, or in the manner of, Robert Adam. Adam was a pioneer of the English neoclassical movement, whose Works in Architecture (1773) helped popularize the Roman taste for harmonizing the architecture of a room and its furniture through the introduction of “tablets” and “medallions.”
The central tablet of the frieze depicts Cupid and Psyche bringing a sacrificial basket of food to an altar, which is unveiled by one of their winged companions. It is inspired by the Egyptian romance, The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass written by the Isis priest Apuleius, which records the birth of Hedone (“Pleasure”) upon the marriage of Cupid and Psyche. The prototype for this bas-relief is likely to have derived from an engraving of the celebrated Sardonyx cameo from The Marlborough Collection of Gems, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figure 1), depicting the marriage procession of Cupid and Psyche acted out by putti. Prior to the Marlborough collection, the gem belonged to other notable owners including Peter Paul Rubens and the Duke of Arundel. Josiah Wedgwood and John Flaxman reproduced the gem in 1778 in the form of a jasper tablet, making collectors and designers alike aware of this composition.
The table also has very distinctive features within its carved ornament connected with this romantic theme. For instance, the frieze is applied with repeating gilded feather motifs, which are probably intended to evoke the wing feathers of cupid and are an interesting variant on the more usual acanthine patterns found on tables in the manner of Adam. Another underlying allusion of the feathers may be to the sun-god Apollo, as poetry deity and leader of the Mt. Parnassus Muses of Artistic Inspiration. Similar feathered plumes feature on the ceiling of an Apollonian temple illustrated in Robert Wood’s, Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, 1753 (figure 2).
The central tablet and table frieze are framed by an Etruscan/Grecian pearl-string, which recalls the dress of the water-born Venus. Pearls also tie palm leaves to the acanthus-wreathed capitals of the tapered legs. Palms are typically used to represent a victory, and in this instance signify the Triumph of Love. The legs are further wreathed by bands of sunflower petals, another allusion to the sun-god Apollo, and raised on stepped and antique-fluted plinths. The frieze’s projecting corner tablets, which are sunk with lozenge and acanthus-flowered compartments, relate to the ceiling ornament of a temple at Palmyra (figure 3).
Sideboards with tapered legs, usually six or eight in number, are a signature element of Adamesque design, intended for a silver plate garniture and the presentation of food and wine.
The exceptionally large scale and opulent design of the present table, including the very unusual hue of bluish-green to the base, reflect its importance in providing a focal point for a banqueting or dining room. Here it served like a temple altar, with its paired legs providing a “triumphal-arch” space for a wine-bottle cistern. The feet are particularly noteworthy, being of spaded circular form and incised with fluting.
The table stood in Linton Park, a mansion built by Robert Mann in the 18th century on the hillside of the eponymous village in Kent. The estate was originally called Capells Court after its initial proprietors who sold it in the late 16th century to the Mayney family, wealthy broadcloth merchants. It was from the Mayney’s that Robert Mann acquired the estate and subsequently remodeled it (figure 4). The Mann family maintained Linton Park until 1935, and in 1938 the estate and its contents were purchased and restored to its original state by Ronald Olaf Hambro, merchant banker and Director of the London Assurance Company. After Hambro, the table eventually passed to a distinguished American private collection, where it can be seen in situ in figure 5.
An English Pair of Carved Neoclassical Giltwood and Ebonized Candelabra.
0These candelabra, although based on a French prototype dating from the 18th Century, are almost certainly English due to the lightness of modeling, gilding technique and typically English vase-shaped brass candleholders.
It is likely that the pair, unusually carved in fine detail from wood, were produced either as special commissions or as maquettes for the plaster sculpture industry that flourished in Britain from the mid 18th to the mid 19th century .
By the early years of the 19th century the demand amongst wealthy patrons in England was so great that sculptors such as Robert Shout and Humphrey Hopper began to make a speciality out of small to medium scale plaster sculptures of neoclassical maidens fitted as lamps.
As only two pairs of the present model are known to exist it seems very likely that they are extremely rare examples of maquettes relating to the hitherto obscure plaster cast industry in England. this has recently become the source of much academic interest due to Timothy Clifford’s important essay “The Plaster Shops of Rococo and Neoclassical Era in Britain”, published in the Journal of the History of Collections in 1992.
This pair were part of the original furnishings of Trevor House, 15 East 90th Street, NY, built for Emily Trevor in 1926.
A Rare Queen Anne Black Lacquer Pad Foot Occasional Table
0The present table is a rare example of English lacquer furniture made in the reign of Queen Anne. Whilst bureaux and mirrors rendered in lacquer at this date are not uncommon, small elegant tables are few. The beautifully drawn cabriole leg supporting a cavetto frieze is particularly pleasing and is more normally associated with prototypes in figured walnut.
Trade between Europe and Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in a cultural exchange which sparked European enthusiasm for Far Eastern decorative arts, particularly painted furniture using lacquering technique. Lacquered furniture was first imported to Europe from China and Japan (hence the English term for the technique, “japanning”) and as contact with these countries increased, the “European rage for paint on furniture, through the ancient art of lacquer” was inspired. Japanned pieces were most often decorated with a black lacquer and decorated with raised and flat work often in the form of deities, pavilions, and fantastical creatures which were then gilded and detailed.
In England, “painted furniture gained popularity during the reign of William and Mary (1689-1792).” It reached its apogee in the early 18th century and demand was so high that the trade was unable to accommodate it. Books were published instructing the English in the art of japanning so that pieces could be made at home. In 1688 John Stalker and George Parker published their Treatise on Japanning and Varnishing, which provided detailed descriptions of lacquer recipes, processes, and designs. Tables, secretaries, chairs, and coffers were all made in this style, such as a tea table (circa 1710) similar to the present example in shape, which can be seen in figure 1. Furniture took contemporary British forms, but was decorated with distinctly Asian scenes of exotic animals and birds, flora, and landscapes. The English “worked hard to imitate the lustrous surface of Asian lacquerware, but the objects they created were distinctly European in character.”
Figure 1
Sheraton Work Table
0The design for the present Work Table appears as Plate 43 in Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist’s Encyclopaedia of 1804-8 (figure 1).
The Encyclopaedia was the third of the publications on the art of furniture making, including numerous plates of designs, through which Sheraton rose to prominence. The first of these publications was the distinguished and influential Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book, produced by subscription in fortnightly numbers between 1791 and 1793. The Cabinet Dictionary followed in 1803 and in that year Sheraton began work on the Encyclopaedia with the ambitious aim of producing 125 parts. Sheraton’s death in 1806 left the work partly incomplete.
It was through the success of these works that Sheraton established his reputation as being among the foremost late eighteenth-century furniture designers.