Beschreibung:

A pair of patinated bronze figural candelabra bases cast as tritons, inspired by Bernini and Tedesco and after designs by Josiah Wedgwood and Matthew Boulton first quarter 19th century, modelled as opposing, each triton with pronounced musculature and facial features, their tails scrolled beneath them atop rockwork and foliate cast bases; each triton holding a twisted stemmed cornucopia to his side, the upper internal mouldings presumed to have been designed to take candelabra branches; on cavetto edged circular marmo nero Belgio socles, with metal circlets to the undersides 30cm high, 16cm diameter at the base CATALOGUE NOTES: The figures on the present lot look back to the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini notably the Triton Fountain in the Piazza Barberini, the Fontana del Moro in the Piazza Navona, and a fountain of the River God executed to Bernini's design in the Palazzo Estense at Sassuolo (cf. R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini the sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London, 1966, pls. 59 & 88, figs. 123-4; and H. Brauer & R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin, 1931, pls.34 & 159a) However a more immediate source would appear to have been an Italian bronze of the late 17th or early 18th century belonging to the Royal Architect Sir William Chambers (See Timothy Clifford `John Bacon and the Manufacturers', Apollo, October 1985, pp. 288-304). Certainly very similar models of the period are recorded, for instance a pair of ormolu tritons attributed to Giovanni Paolo Tedesco, a pupil of Bernini's, which appeared at Sotheby's Paris, Un Hommage au XVIIIe Siecle - Adriano Ribolzi, Antiquaire, 30th November 2011, lot 14, -these having been positively dated to some time between 1650 and 1710 by a thermoluminescence test From surviving correspondence it is clear that Chambers lent this bronze to Josiah Wedgwood in 1769, and that Wedgwood in turn made a copy of the bronze, his version often being attributed to John Flaxman but also potentially the work of William Keeling. The Wedgwood triton was certainly shown to Matthew Boulton on a visit to Soho in 1770 (cf. Finer & Savage, Selected Letters of Josiah Wedgwood p.87; Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood 1865, vol.II, pp.212 & 218). The bronze belonging to Chambers later passed into the Torlonia Collection in Rome and is now untraced, but a related example is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago (1970.464 & 465). Boulton incorporated the Triton figure in a design for a candelabrum (cf. Nicholas Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton 1974, pp.102-103). A pair of these were manufactured to accompany the original model, and one was itemised in Boulton and Fothergill's sale as `A tryton in dark bronz, holding branches for two candles in or moulu, on a bassment of the neatly ornamentd' (A Catalogue of the Superb and Elegant produce of Messrs Boulton and Fothergill's Or moulu Manufactory, at Soho in Staffordshire, Christie's London, 11-13 April 1771, third day, lot 28) Josiah Wedgwood's examples in jasperware were promoted in Wedgwood and Bentley's 1773 pattern book, and are discussed by Robin Reilly and George Savage, The Dictionary of Wedgwood, Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 1980, p342. Interestingly they note that Wedgwood himself described the triton candlesticks as being 'after Michelangelo' For examples of related pairs (complete with candelabra branches) see Sotheby's London, Important English Furniture Including Magnificent Chinese Mirror Paintings and English Furniture from the Horlick Collection, 5th June 2007, lot 226 Also Christie's New York, Fine English Furniture and Objects of Art, 12th October 1991, lot 11 Also Christie's London, English Furniture, 15th April 1999, lot 13 A Further pair of Triton candelabra is recorded at Birr Caslte, Co. Offaly, Ireland, (see Hugh Montgommery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes Great Houses of Ireland, 1999, p, 68)