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Lot Essay
THOMAS HOPE
Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was born in Amsterdam to John Hope, a banker of Scottish origin, and Philippina Barbara van der Hoeven. He embarked on an extensive Grand Tour in 1787, during which time he sketched architectural remains in ancient lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea and amassed an impressive art collection, chiefly during his stay in Italy.
In 1799 Hope purchased a substantial mansion in London on Duchess Street off Portland Place. The house had originally been designed by the famed architect Robert Adam around 1768. Hope spent the interval between 1799 and 1804 designing the interiors and acquiring its furnishings with the objective of creating "a coherent ambient symbolic of the antiquities contained within" (Humbert, et al., Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, Paris, 1994, pp. 186-187). The house was officially opened to the public in 1804 and was accompanied by the publication of Household Furniture and Interior Decoration Executed from Designs by Thomas Hope, which included engravings of many of the rooms. The volume was to have considerable influence on the taste of English Regency design and established what came to be known as the "Hope Style."
Thomas Hope continued to collect antiquities right up to his death and transferred part of the collection to his country house The Deepdene in Surrey, in 1824-25, to which a new wing had just been added to accommodate them. The decline of the world famous Hope Collection of ancient marbles and vases began with the inheritance of Deepdene in 1884, by Hope's grandson Lord Francis Hope. He was declared bankrupt in 1894, forcing the sale of various paintings and the famous Hope blue diamond for £120,000. In 1912 the estates were placed into the hands of the receivers and the greater part of the Hope collection of ancient marbles was sold at Christie’s on Tuesday 24th July 1917. It was the London dealer Durlacher that bought lots 186 and 187, the two panther headed tripods, as agent for Baron Schroder.
THE SCHRODER COLLECTION
The Schroder family came to England from Hamburg in the late eighteenth century and became amongst the most successful of Europe's merchant bankers. Johann Friedrich Schroder established a trading company in London around 1801 and was later joined by his brother, Johann Heinrich (1784-1883), who set up his own business in 1818, J. Henry Schroder & Co. Johann Heinrich was succeeded by his son, Baron Sir John Henry (1825-1910), who acquired works of art on a grand scale. He displayed his extensive collection at The Dell, an old hunting lodge on the edge of Windsor Great Park from which Christie’s sold pieces, both in 1910 over two days and the residual contents in a three-day house sale in 1979 . His collection included Chinese cloisonné enamel, Medieval and Renaissance silver, pictures, Sèvres porcelain, gold snuff boxes and Renaissance works of art. John Henry had no children, and appointed his nephew, Baron Bruno Schroder (1867-1940), as his heir. It was Baron Bruno Schroder, carrying on the collecting zeal of his uncle, who purchased these two tables at the famous Hope sale in 1917. He and his wife Emma had moved into Dell Park during the First world War, and it seems that during this time, their passion for collecting began. Their collecting was very much in the vein of furnishing Dell Park, and their London house, with pieces appropriate to the style and character of each property, but always intending to choose pieces to enable them to create a family home rather than a museum.
THE TRIPODS
Both tripods (lots 4 and 5) were purchased circa 1810 at the latest, as they are both illustrated in the Hope Marbles. This tripod itself, Hope must have thought very highly of, as he used it to display a Roman marble satyr head from his collection, in the Statue Gallery at Duchess Street (see. p. 78 from Waywell, The Lever and Hope Sculptures). After the purchase of Deepdene and its subsequent remodelling and additions, they were both moved, circa 1924-1824.
In 1826 J. P. Neale published an account of the works at Deepdene, but mentioned only two tripods - one in the Theatre, and another in the Sculpture Gallery "in good taste". In 1828, George Prosser visited various Surrey Country houses, including Deepdene, where he was clearly taken with the building and the gardens designed by Hope. He closely follows the layout of Neale, but mentions three tripod tables on his tour of the house, listing them in the Theatre ("in the centre is a marble tripod, the sacred symbol of the ancients"); the Conservatory ("in the centre of the pavement stands a handsome marble tripod table"); and in the Sculpture Gallery ("a large marble tripod"). An 1826 watercolour of the Deepdene Sculpture Gallery by Penry Williams (see Watkin & Hewat-Jaboor, Thomas Hope Regency Designer, p. 118) shows a very plain marble tripod with no protomes, so one must assume that the two Schroder tripods are the ones in the Theatre and Conservatory. Furthermore, from a watercolour illustration of the Conservatory from 1825-1826 (Watkin & Hewat-Jaboor, op. cit., p. 226) the tripod shown in the Conservatory has lion paw feet and the panther-head protomes emerge from acanthus leaves (which corresponds to the second Schroder tripod, lot 5). Therefore, it can be assumed that this tripod is the one mentioned by Neale and Prosser, placed in the Theatre.
THE ALABASTER TRIPOD
This tripod table consists of ancient alabastro verdignolo listano trapezophori carved with fierce panther head and a circular top dish or labrum of breccia cenerina. These ancient elements were used in the 18th Century to construct a polychrome marble tripod, including a central fluted Ionic column in alabastro fiorito. The stepped plinth has alternating marble types including a first tier of breccia cenerina to mirror the top. The craftsman who constructed this piece was clearly inspired by ancient classical sculptures of polychrome marbles and used the contrasting colours of the stones to their maximum effect. As E. Anglicoussis notes "Luxurious furnishing attested to the wealth and status of Roman owners, and the fashion for ostentatious display was just as prevalent in eighteenth-century England" (Thomas Hope, op. cit. p. 326).
In Greece tables tended to be used for dining purposes only, being practical and portable. However, in Roman times the role of the table changed, used for display and decoration, and becoming more ornate and made from various luxury materials. The tripod table was one style of display table, with either a round or rectangular leaf and generally animal-shaped legs. The Romans introduced the idea of animal heads (swans, panthers, lions) above the animals legs. For a panther-headed tripod table found in the garden of the House of the Deer at Herculaneum cf. G. M. A. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, London, 1966, fig. 572. Tripod tables were found all over the Roman empire, from Turkey in the East to Gaul in the West. They themselves became an extravagant display of the wealth and taste of the owner - Juvenal refers to a table decorated with a ramping, raging leopard of solid ivory (Satire XI, 120 ff.).
Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was born in Amsterdam to John Hope, a banker of Scottish origin, and Philippina Barbara van der Hoeven. He embarked on an extensive Grand Tour in 1787, during which time he sketched architectural remains in ancient lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea and amassed an impressive art collection, chiefly during his stay in Italy.
In 1799 Hope purchased a substantial mansion in London on Duchess Street off Portland Place. The house had originally been designed by the famed architect Robert Adam around 1768. Hope spent the interval between 1799 and 1804 designing the interiors and acquiring its furnishings with the objective of creating "a coherent ambient symbolic of the antiquities contained within" (Humbert, et al., Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930, Paris, 1994, pp. 186-187). The house was officially opened to the public in 1804 and was accompanied by the publication of Household Furniture and Interior Decoration Executed from Designs by Thomas Hope, which included engravings of many of the rooms. The volume was to have considerable influence on the taste of English Regency design and established what came to be known as the "Hope Style."
Thomas Hope continued to collect antiquities right up to his death and transferred part of the collection to his country house The Deepdene in Surrey, in 1824-25, to which a new wing had just been added to accommodate them. The decline of the world famous Hope Collection of ancient marbles and vases began with the inheritance of Deepdene in 1884, by Hope's grandson Lord Francis Hope. He was declared bankrupt in 1894, forcing the sale of various paintings and the famous Hope blue diamond for £120,000. In 1912 the estates were placed into the hands of the receivers and the greater part of the Hope collection of ancient marbles was sold at Christie’s on Tuesday 24th July 1917. It was the London dealer Durlacher that bought lots 186 and 187, the two panther headed tripods, as agent for Baron Schroder.
THE SCHRODER COLLECTION
The Schroder family came to England from Hamburg in the late eighteenth century and became amongst the most successful of Europe's merchant bankers. Johann Friedrich Schroder established a trading company in London around 1801 and was later joined by his brother, Johann Heinrich (1784-1883), who set up his own business in 1818, J. Henry Schroder & Co. Johann Heinrich was succeeded by his son, Baron Sir John Henry (1825-1910), who acquired works of art on a grand scale. He displayed his extensive collection at The Dell, an old hunting lodge on the edge of Windsor Great Park from which Christie’s sold pieces, both in 1910 over two days and the residual contents in a three-day house sale in 1979 . His collection included Chinese cloisonné enamel, Medieval and Renaissance silver, pictures, Sèvres porcelain, gold snuff boxes and Renaissance works of art. John Henry had no children, and appointed his nephew, Baron Bruno Schroder (1867-1940), as his heir. It was Baron Bruno Schroder, carrying on the collecting zeal of his uncle, who purchased these two tables at the famous Hope sale in 1917. He and his wife Emma had moved into Dell Park during the First world War, and it seems that during this time, their passion for collecting began. Their collecting was very much in the vein of furnishing Dell Park, and their London house, with pieces appropriate to the style and character of each property, but always intending to choose pieces to enable them to create a family home rather than a museum.
THE TRIPODS
Both tripods (lots 4 and 5) were purchased circa 1810 at the latest, as they are both illustrated in the Hope Marbles. This tripod itself, Hope must have thought very highly of, as he used it to display a Roman marble satyr head from his collection, in the Statue Gallery at Duchess Street (see. p. 78 from Waywell, The Lever and Hope Sculptures). After the purchase of Deepdene and its subsequent remodelling and additions, they were both moved, circa 1924-1824.
In 1826 J. P. Neale published an account of the works at Deepdene, but mentioned only two tripods - one in the Theatre, and another in the Sculpture Gallery "in good taste". In 1828, George Prosser visited various Surrey Country houses, including Deepdene, where he was clearly taken with the building and the gardens designed by Hope. He closely follows the layout of Neale, but mentions three tripod tables on his tour of the house, listing them in the Theatre ("in the centre is a marble tripod, the sacred symbol of the ancients"); the Conservatory ("in the centre of the pavement stands a handsome marble tripod table"); and in the Sculpture Gallery ("a large marble tripod"). An 1826 watercolour of the Deepdene Sculpture Gallery by Penry Williams (see Watkin & Hewat-Jaboor, Thomas Hope Regency Designer, p. 118) shows a very plain marble tripod with no protomes, so one must assume that the two Schroder tripods are the ones in the Theatre and Conservatory. Furthermore, from a watercolour illustration of the Conservatory from 1825-1826 (Watkin & Hewat-Jaboor, op. cit., p. 226) the tripod shown in the Conservatory has lion paw feet and the panther-head protomes emerge from acanthus leaves (which corresponds to the second Schroder tripod, lot 5). Therefore, it can be assumed that this tripod is the one mentioned by Neale and Prosser, placed in the Theatre.
THE ALABASTER TRIPOD
This tripod table consists of ancient alabastro verdignolo listano trapezophori carved with fierce panther head and a circular top dish or labrum of breccia cenerina. These ancient elements were used in the 18th Century to construct a polychrome marble tripod, including a central fluted Ionic column in alabastro fiorito. The stepped plinth has alternating marble types including a first tier of breccia cenerina to mirror the top. The craftsman who constructed this piece was clearly inspired by ancient classical sculptures of polychrome marbles and used the contrasting colours of the stones to their maximum effect. As E. Anglicoussis notes "Luxurious furnishing attested to the wealth and status of Roman owners, and the fashion for ostentatious display was just as prevalent in eighteenth-century England" (Thomas Hope, op. cit. p. 326).
In Greece tables tended to be used for dining purposes only, being practical and portable. However, in Roman times the role of the table changed, used for display and decoration, and becoming more ornate and made from various luxury materials. The tripod table was one style of display table, with either a round or rectangular leaf and generally animal-shaped legs. The Romans introduced the idea of animal heads (swans, panthers, lions) above the animals legs. For a panther-headed tripod table found in the garden of the House of the Deer at Herculaneum cf. G. M. A. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, London, 1966, fig. 572. Tripod tables were found all over the Roman empire, from Turkey in the East to Gaul in the West. They themselves became an extravagant display of the wealth and taste of the owner - Juvenal refers to a table decorated with a ramping, raging leopard of solid ivory (Satire XI, 120 ff.).