Beschreibung:

A pair of mid-19th Century polychrome and parcel gilt carved wood and brass Angel altar candlesticks on pedestal standsin the manner of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (British, 1812-1852) the winged figures clad in draped robes with downcast faces and coloured 'jewelled' paste set halos, each holding a scrolling brass candle arm issuing a turned nozzle with castellated dished drip pan and knopped cylindrical terminal raised on hexagonal bases, the ebonised, polychrome and parcel gilt pedestals of column form, the circular moulded tops on faux spiral painted cylindrical shafts above leafy quatrefoil socle bases and shallow square plinths, the candlesticks, 77cm high, the pedestals, 99cm high (4)FootnotesThe figures of the offered lot bear some similarities to the Angel corbels which were added to the chapel at Alton Towers in Staffordshire in the mid-19th century. Designed by Thomas Fradgley Joseph Ireland and Joseph Potter of Lichfield for the catholic 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, the chapel was altered and redecorated by Augustus Welby Pugin in 1839-40 with carved and painted panels including some of Medieval origin from the Magdalen College at Oxford and a new reredos and altar. Later in 1850, the ceiling was further embellished in blue, red, and gold with a Latin text frieze on painted canvas. However, the Angels corbels in the chapel are in painted and gilded plaster, a material which is not characteristic of Pugin's output given his artistic and moral 'True Principles' but nevertheless it is recorded that he was 'fixing figures in the chapel gallery' in 1840 and he supervised the decoration of the ceiling between 1849-1851.