Candlestick (set of eight)
- Candlestick (set of eight)
.A (candlestick): 12 1/4 × 8 × 8 in.
.B (bobeche): 1 11/16 × 3 3/4 in. diameter
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With their curvaceous torsos, asymmetrical compositions, well-sculpted curves and fine casting, these candlesticks, part of a larger set of eight, are excellent examples of the artistic heights reached by the silversmith in eighteenth-century England.
Until the 1730s, English candlesticks tended to mimic the simple column shapes of architectural forms. By the 1740s, however, silversmiths began to expand their interests with the fresh influence of the French Rococo. Candlesticks became more highly ornamented, theatrical and, in the spirit of some art of the period, more bacchanalian. Set within a great eighteenth-century English town or country house, candlesticks such as these helped create an ambience of wit and merriment.
Provenance[Brand Inglis, Ltd., London, c. 1991]; [Kenneth Davis, London]; [Harris Lindsay, Ltd., London]; Mr. and Mrs. John Kurtz, Oxford; [S. J. Phillips, Ltd., London, 2001]; purchased by MFAH, 2001.
Exhibition History"English Taste: The Art of Dining in the Eighteenth Century," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 17 September 2011 - 29 January 2012.
Published References Victoria and Albert Museum, Rococo: Art and Design in Hogarth’s England (London: Trefoil Books and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1984), 70. Arthur G. Grimwade, Rococo Silver, 1727–1765 (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), 54–55, ill. 72A–75B. The Lamerie candelabra and four Kandler candlesticks belong to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. For a detailed discussion of this group of silver, see Timothy Schroder, British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, 3 vols. (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2008). Christie’s, New York, Important Silver, Objects of Vertu, and Russian Works of Art, 19 October 2001, lot 345. Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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