Beschreibung:

THE COOTE CANDELABRA A pair of important Regency silver-gilt seven light candelabra Benjamin Smith London 1812-13 the incurved triangular plinths raised on winged paw feet, the triple caryatid female figural stem rising from a leaf decorated platform resting on three winged sphinxes, the stem with applied armorials, each with six scrolling foliate and lion mask decorated branches with fluted waxpans rising from twin leafy vases below the similar central light, detachable nozzles and engraved with armorials, crests and initials (2) 91cm high, 932oz Provenance: Possibly the pair sold Christie's October 17th 1962 lot 103 Heraldry: The arms are those of Coote, for Sir Charles Henry Coote, 9th Bt whose great great great grandfather was the younger brother of Sir Charles Coote, 2nd Bt and created Earl of Mountrath in 1660. Sir Charles Henry succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1802 on the death of Charles Henry 6th and last Earl of Mountrath. He was a Colonel of the Queen's County Militia and an MP for Queens County 1821-47 and 1852-69. He married Caroline, daughter of John Whaley of Whaley Abbey, Co. Wicklow in 1814 and died at 5 Connaught Place, Paddington on 8 October, 1864. Note: These magnificent candelabra match the set of four in the Royal collection (Jones pl. LXIV) supplied by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, Paul Storr London, 1808 and weighing 1963oz. The attribution to Boileau (Young, pp. 334-337) is based on comparisons of details to a volume of drawings held at the Victoria & Albert Museum and in particular designs for a wine cooler with sphinx supports and centre pieces incorporating fleshy patera in the branches. Boileau arrived in England on the advice of Henry Holland in 1787 to work on the decoration of Carlton House. It has been suggested that the couchant-sphinx support owe their inspiration to Piranesi's engraving of an antique marble candelabrum on couchant-lions, published in Rome, 1778 in Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcofagi, tripodi, lucerne ed ornamenti antichi, Schroder, pp. 356-7, figure 79. The candelabrum was not a complete piece but a composition of excavated fragments, restored under Piranesi's supervision and sold in 1775 to Sir Roger Newdigate It seems more likely, however, that the source for these candelabra was originally an engraving of one of pair of antique examples from the Farnese Collection in the Museo Nazionale at Naples, originally in the Royal Palace at Capodimonte. Such sphinxes can be found in other of Boileau's designs including, for example, the magnificent group of four soup tureens, Paul Storr 1802/3, in the Royal Collection. A single candelabrum of similar size and design, Scott & Smith, 1804/05/07 from the collection of the Duke of Sussex and sold Sotheby's London, 18 March, 1982 is now in the Al Tajir Collection (Truman, p156) and four-light examples were previously in the collection of the Lord Barnard and are now in the Gilbert Collection (Schroder, pp354-357) Literature: Jones, E A: The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, London, 1911. Young, Hilary: A further Note on J J Boileau 'a Forgotten designer of Silver', Apollo, October 1986. Truman, Charles: The Glory of the Goldsmith, Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, London, 1989. Schroder, Timothy: The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles, 1988. Udy, David, Neo-Classical Works of Art, Grosvenor House Exhibition Catalogue, 1966, no 7. See also Christie's New York, April 11th 1995, lot 234. for other candelabra with the Coote crest/r159