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Lot Essay
The candelabra's Atlas-posed Hercules recalls the Villa Albani's faun caryatids illustrated in Henry Moses, A Collection of Antique vases, altars, paterae, tripods etc., l8l4, and derived from G.B. Piranesi's Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcophagi etc., Rome, 1778. The figure was introduced for candelabra executed for George, Prince Regent, later King George IV, by Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (d. l854), who had succeeded in 1811 to his father's Pall Mall clock-manufacturing business and served as the Prince's 'Furniture man'.
The Prince's candelabra involved fifteen different craftsman and firms over a two year period, and were invoiced in 1814. A related set of four triple-branched candelabra were supplied to Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson (d. 1818), (see T.Rodrigues et al., Treasures of the North, London, February 2000, no. 124). The figure supports a serpent-wreathed vase, whose pattern featured on other bronze candelabra executed for the Prince by Vulliamy between 1806 and 1811 (J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace, London, l958, p. 156).
The Prince's candelabra involved fifteen different craftsman and firms over a two year period, and were invoiced in 1814. A related set of four triple-branched candelabra were supplied to Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson (d. 1818), (see T.Rodrigues et al., Treasures of the North, London, February 2000, no. 124). The figure supports a serpent-wreathed vase, whose pattern featured on other bronze candelabra executed for the Prince by Vulliamy between 1806 and 1811 (J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace, London, l958, p. 156).