A GEORGE II OIL-GILT WALNUT TORCHÈRE Lot n° 20

A GEORGE II OIL-GILT WALNUT TORCHÈRE MID-18TH CENTURY The circular top with gadrooned and spindle gallery above a spirally-fluted and foliate baluster shaft, the foliate and scroll-carved tripod base on claw-and-ball feet, retaining some gilt enrichments109cm high, 36cm diameter (the top)Provenance: Possibly acquired before 1910, 'A finest quality Chippendale flower stand'The torchere is a variation on a pattern that has traditionally been highly prized by connoisseurs. Among a small group of such, the majority are consistent in having pierced and slightly everted galleries though with the same gadrooned rim and scrolled feet. Foremost among these is a pair formerly at Campsea Ashe, Suffolk and which were subsequently acquired by two of the greatest 20th century collectors of English Furniture. They were probably supplied to Sir William Lowther for Swillington Hall, Yorkshire, and then passed by descent to the Hon. William Lowther (d.1912), youngest brother of the 3rd Earl of Lonsdale, at Lowther Lodge, and subsequently to James, Viscount Ullswater (d.1949) at The High House, Campsea Ashe, Suffolk. Among the exceptional Queen Anne walnut and parcel-gilt furniture sold from Campsea Ashe in 1949, the torcheres were acquired by Samuel Messer. They were, in turn, sold after Messer's death, Christie's, London, 5 December 1991, lot 69 and later were acquired by Simon Sainsbury, only to be sold once more at Christie's, London, 18 June 2008, lot 90. Another single torchere of identical pattern (acquired from Mallett in 1947) was sold from the collection of Mr. & Mrs. Jack Steinberg who, like Messer, was advised in their collecting by the furniture historian and writer R.W.Symonds, Christie's, London, 19 May 2016, lot 35. Another related pair was in the collection of Mrs. Hannah Gubbay at Clandon Park, Surrey; these differed in having paw feet (like the torchere offered here). They were unfortunately destroyed in the fire that consumed Clandon Park in 2015. Others include a pair formerly in the collection of Lord Barnard at Raby Castle, Co. Durham, a pair with the collector James Thursby-Pelham collection (possibly the Raby castle pair, illustrated in P.Macquoid, Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. III, p.150, fig. 19), and another pair lacking gilding formerly in the Leopold Hirsch collection