Thomas Moore
Head of Department
Lot 83TP
A matched pair of satinwood and carved mahogany urns and pedestals one urn and pedestal circa 1775, the other of a later date but probably 19th century
18 December 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £22,750 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Home and Interiors specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
A matched pair of satinwood and carved mahogany urns and pedestals
one urn and pedestal circa 1775, the other of a later date but probably 19th century
The lidded classical urns with pine-cone finials, one enclosing a lead liner, above ovoid bodies with guilloche borders and applied ram's heads and swagged bellflowers, with male and female portrait medallions, above stiff leaves and fluted collars, on stiff leaf carved socle bases and stepped plinths; the square pedestal tops with leaf moulded edges, each front carved with classical urns flanked by scrolling acanthus and grotesque masks, above scrolling riband tied acanthus flanked by angled pilasters, headed by leaf and pine-cone carving with trailing bellflowers, on plinth bases, one pedestal enclosing a lead lined drawer and shelf, with a concealed tap in the top, the later copy entirely in mahogany, each 56cm wide, 56cm deep, 189cm high, (22" wide, 22" deep, 74" high) (2)
The lidded classical urns with pine-cone finials, one enclosing a lead liner, above ovoid bodies with guilloche borders and applied ram's heads and swagged bellflowers, with male and female portrait medallions, above stiff leaves and fluted collars, on stiff leaf carved socle bases and stepped plinths; the square pedestal tops with leaf moulded edges, each front carved with classical urns flanked by scrolling acanthus and grotesque masks, above scrolling riband tied acanthus flanked by angled pilasters, headed by leaf and pine-cone carving with trailing bellflowers, on plinth bases, one pedestal enclosing a lead lined drawer and shelf, with a concealed tap in the top, the later copy entirely in mahogany, each 56cm wide, 56cm deep, 189cm high, (22" wide, 22" deep, 74" high) (2)
Footnotes
A related pair of George III carved mahogany sideboard pedestals and urns with applied carving to the pedestals and similar urns are illustrated in F. Lewis Hinckley, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, London 1990, p.229. An urn of closely related form with similar lotus-leaf banding and swagged husks and medallions forms part of a cast-iron stove for the Saloon at Castle Coole, Co. Fermanagh by Carron Iron Co., Falkirk, Scotland (the house designed by James Wyatt), see H. Montgomery Massingbird and C. Simon Sykes, Great Houses of Ireland, London, 1999, p.11. Other Stove urns of this type include one in the collection at Temple Newsam, see C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall, Bradford, 1978, Vol III., p.629, Fig.773 and another formerly at Compton Place, Sussex and now in the collection of the V&A (M.3-1920).
Similar shaped painted urns and pedestals with applied decoration to the pedestals were designed by Robert Adam and supplied to the re-modelled dining room at Saltram circa 1780 and are illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, Vol. III, 1954, London, p.139, fig.5. Designs for related urns with carved pedestals were published by George Hepplewhite in his 'The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterers Guide, third edition, 1794, pl.35&36.
Sideboard pedestals and urns became fashionable in the 1760s. The pedestals themselves provide extra storage and often contained a plate warmer or cellaret drawer. The urns were normally lined to hold either iced water or water for rinsing cutlery in the dining room. Sheraton wrote in his Cabinet-Makers' and Upholsterers' Encyclopeodia (1805) that 'Pedestals with vases at each end of the sideboard, one was used as a plate warmer, while the other sometimes contained a cellaret for wine while the vases 'are used for water for the use of the butler, and sometimes made of copper japanned, but generally of mahogany'.
