Description
A fine and rare pair of English Regency-period torchères, or stands – or candle stands – in the manner of Thomas Hope.
Circa 1810.
Both raised on tapering simulated-bronze column supports with circular tops and fluted gilt collars, on a concave-sided triform base with winged panther mask monopodia. The base of the columns issuing from spreading, gilded carved lotus.
These antique torcheres might also be referred to as columns, ornamental stands, candle sticks, or candelabra.
In superb condition.
Measures:
H 125.5 cm (49 1/2″)
W 50.5 cm (20″)
D 50.5 cm (20″).
Literature:
Thomas Hope – Regency Designer, ed. David Watkin & Philip Hewat-Jaboor, Yale University Press, New Haven and London (2008) The Faringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Oxfordshire, illustr. 88, pp. 414-415.
The pair of stands we are offering correspond closely to the pair in the Faringdon Collection (see above). Watkin and Hewat-Jaboor state; ‘’A ‘Roman’ stand of this precise design, perhaps an imaginative variation on one published by Visconti*, is illustrated in ‘Household Furniture”, plate L, number 2… Hope also owned several classical Roman candelabra himself, and these too might have provided inspiration for the present model”. See Waywell, The Lever and Hope Sculptures (1986): pls. 16 & 17.
Il Museo Pio-Clementino vol. 5 (1782): pl. III.
Vis. The Deepdene Trail – Deepdene entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses.
Thomas Hope: Regency Designer – 2008 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Portrait of Thomas Hope (National Portrait Gallery, London).
Anastasius Vols. 1 – 3 at the Internet Archive.
Hinchingbrooke – II, Country Life (13 April, 1929) Christopher Hussey, p. 517, fig. 6.
Torcheres and Candelabra – Designs by Robert Adam, Ralph Edwards CBA FSA, Country Life (May 23, 1947) pp. 966-967.
The Furniture of Robert Adam, Eileen Harris (1963).
Regency Furniture 1795-1830, Margaret Jourdain (1965) figs. 31, 168 & 176.
World Furniture, Helena Hayward, ed (1965) p. 17, fig. 32.
The Aurora Room, Duchess Street, photo from V & A Museum, fig. 68-1, p. 378.
The Royal Collection, HM Queen Elizabeth II, RCIN 588- 1-2, 45- 1-2, figs. 78-2, 78-3, p. 396.
