Lot 39
A pair of French Empire patinated and gilt-bronze candelabra
9 July 2015, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £11,875 inc. premium
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A pair of French Empire patinated and gilt-bronze candelabra
each with four candle-arms surmounted by butterflies and centred by a flambeau finial, the supports in the form of neo-classical muse figures, on domed bases, the verde antico marble pedestals with applied garlands, on monopodia feet with square plinths, 29cm wide, 17cm deep, 102cm high (11in wide, 6 1/2in deep, 40in high). (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Milnes Gaskell family of Thornes House, Wakefield and thence by descent.
Exhibited:
Heaton Hall, Manchester City Art Galleries
Thornes House, Wakefield, Yorkshire was designed by John Carr (1723-1807) the predominant architect of the period in the north of England who worked chiefly in the Palladian style. Carr had calculated that the north could provide him with substantial patronage and therefore he did not need a London base. Carr's domestic commissions included Newby Hall (remodelling c.1758-60), Harewood House (1775-1781 except the decoration of the principal rooms), Wentworth Woodhouse (completion of the house and out buildings c.1760-1804) and Denton Hall (1769-1781). His largest scale work was The Hospital de Santo Antonio in Oporto, Portugal (c.1769-1843).
Thornes House was commissioned for James Milnes (1755-1805),the Yorkshire cloth exporter. Milnes added to his already substantial fortune, acquiring a £100,000 dowry on marrying one of the co-heiresses of Hans Buck, the Leeds cloth merchant, in 1778. The house was built on a good site overlooking Wakefield, Milnes had acquired the land in 1778 and the house was built 1779-1781 and the surrounding parkland was likely developed at the same time. In 1790's the house was described as:
"...backed by a pretty declining lawn, bordering on each side with the greatest variety of flowering shrubs perhaps ever collected in one spot. A fine view extends into the country from a bow window, executed in the modern taste by Mr Carr of York; and the greenhouses and other buildings combine to make this one of the completest town-houses in this county".
The house was probably the finest 18th century building in Wakefield and its contemporary reputation secured it's inclusion in the 1802 edition of Vitruvius Brittanica, the regular survey of the world's most important buildings by George Richardson.
In 1919 the Thornes estate was put up for sale and was bought by the Wakefield Corporation for £18,500. The plans were to use 20 acres and the house as a school and use the remaining 92 acres of housing. The house became a grammar school and was destroyed by fire in 1951 with new buildings erected on the site in the following years.
