A Queen Anne carved giltwood and gilt-metal eight-light chandelier, circa 1710-15

A Queen Anne carved giltwood and gilt-metal eight-light chandelier, circa 1710-15

surmounted by a wyvern upon a sphere on a baluster shaft carved with foliate scrolls on a hatched ground, with three scrolling wyvern volutes, the labrequinned and foliate carved support issuing scrolling foliate candlearms with gilt-brass eagle-cast drip pans and nozzles cast with lion masks and foliage with a fruiting foliate base, regilt, drilled for electricity

104cm. high, 91.5 cm. wide; 3ft. 5in, 3ft.
Provenance

With Redburn Antiques, London, 1 April 1971 (inv. no. 27A);
The Collection of Doris Duke, sold to benefit the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Christie's New York, 15 April 2005, lot 145;
with Ronald Phillips Ltd., London.Literature
Ronald Phillips Ltd., catalogue, London, 2006, p.220.
This extravagant chandelier is remarkably rare, with few other extant examples of early-18^th century chandeliers surviving at this scale. The design ultimately derives from the rich ‘arabesque’ forms of French decoration in the Louis XIV and Régence periods: Ottomeyer and Pröschel illustrate numerous analogous chandeliers in gilt bronze in Vergoldete Bronzen, including an example by André-Charles Boulle that hangs in the Bibliothèque Mazarine and is closely similar to the present lot in form and ornament.¹ A possible link to English furniture makers may come through Daniel Marot, a Huguenot designer who worked extensively in England after fleeing religious persecution in France and published illustrations for chandeliers in this style in his Nouveau Livre d’Orfevrie Inventé par Marot, Architecte du Roy […] in 1701-1703.² However, these French models tended to be in gilt bronze, and examples in gilt wood are even rarer. One example belongs to the V&A (W.28-1959) and is displayed at Kensington Palace, and an example originally made for Holme Lacy is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum (1995.141). The MET example is attributed to John Gumley and James Moore, who cooperated on their royal commission but were also independently active with top aristocratic clients like the Earl of Burlington and the Duchess of Marlborough. A slightly later example of a giltwood chandelier attributed to James Moore and made for George II, possibly during his time as Prince of Wales between 1714 and 1727, is at Hampton Court (RCIN 1018).

The wyvern atop this chandelier is an unusual element of the design that was possibly included as a reference to its patron. Wyverns are associated with numerous families, but the most notable is the Herbert family, which by the early 18^th century existed in several branches. William Herbert, 2^nd Marquess of Powis (1665-1745) included a wyvern surmounting the front door in the design of his London home Powis House, and they were incorporated into the carving of a pair of gilt-gesso mirrors offered in these Rooms, 5 July 2023, lot 14. Alternatively, Thomas Herbert, 8^th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733) may have commissioned them, given that he was a prominent statesman under Queen Anne and the owner of Wilton House, Wiltshire.

 

¹ Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronezen: Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Munich, 1986, vol I, p.54, fig.. 1.6.10.

² This illustration is printed in Ottomeyer and Pröschel, ibid., p. 50, pl.1.6.1, and a digitised copy can also be found in the collection of the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braunschweig, cat. no. DMarot AB 3.96. Available at: <https://nds.museum-digital.de/object/73868> [accessed 26^th October 2023]

³ This house is now demolished, but an engraving for Vitruvius Britannicus is in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, obj, no. 17/1583. Available at: <https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/the-elevation-of-powis-house-in-ormond-street-london>