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Lot Essay
Finely decorated with the iconography of classical civilisation and faithfully recalling Hellenistic designs revived by the great draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piranesi, these magnificent candelabra reflect the enduring allure of antiquity and its influence in some of the grandest and innovative interiors of Gilded Age America. Acquired for the lavish music room of Maybrook, a gothic-revival mansion on Philadelphia’s fabled ‘Main Line’, they are most likely the work of the celebrated New York lighting designer Edward F. Caldwell, who fitted interiors for the Frick, Vanderbilt and Guggenheim families.
Throughout the first quarter of the 20th century, the New York firm established in 1895 by Edward F. Caldwell and continued after his death in 1914 by Victor E. von Lossberg, was perhaps the leading American designer and manufacturer of lighting fixtures and decorative objects fashioned in metal and various other materials. Working from its foundry at 38 West 15th Street, the company supplied fine quality products to the most illustrious families in the United States. A sketch for torcheres of this model appears in 1902 in Caldwell’s design book titled C.13245 and though initially conceived for a height of only 16”, each aspect seen on the present lot is clearly visible in Caldwell’s design. The dating of this design firmly supports the attribution to Caldwell with the construction of the grand music room at Maybrook beginning in 1901.
Caldwell was inspired by numerous historical forms and for this commission turned to the highly fashionable and perpetually esteemed models of antiquity, which in their turn had been propagated to a wide audience in the 18th century by the renowned draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). The design of these candelabra is derived directly from a Hellenistic marble candelabrum of similar height currently preserved in the Farnese Collection at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. no. 6781), reassembled in the 18th century by Piranesi. This candelabrum was long celebrated as one of the collection’s most important items and its significance as a survivor of ancient furniture design is demonstrated by an early inclusion and illustration in the 1875 publication of the South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks (today the Victoria & Albert Museum).1
ORIGINS OF THE DESIGN
Of almost identical design and with carving clearly intended to imitate the Hellenistic candelabrum, the present lot differs in design only in the luxurious adaptation of the cranes into patinated bronze and the addition of the patinated bronze candle branches. A closely related design was executed in an etching of a candelabrum by Piranesi in Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcophagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi’ vol 2, 1778-1780. Other related Hellenistic and Roman torchere candelabra assembled by Piranesi are currently preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. ANMichaelis.241 & ANMichaelis.242). With these designs widely distributed across Europe in the late 18th and early 19th century, the great designers of the second half of the 19th century sought to adapt them for their clients and as well a number of related models cast in bronze by the Chiurazzi Factory of Naples, it is clear from Caldwell’s design book that Piranesi’s designs were an early source for the firm’s production.
MAYBROOK
Maybrook was built in 1881 by the liquor and real estate baron Henry C. Gibson (1830-1891) and was designed by the prominent architects George Watson Hewitt and William D. Hewitt in the style of a Scottish baronial caste. The house was located in Wynnewood on the fabled ‘Main Line’ where Philadelphia’s wealthiest families commissioned sprawling country estates during America’s Gilded Age. With mansions built in a dazzling variety of historicist styles, Maybrook was no exception and contained splendid interiors with magnificent panelling, Minton tiles, painted glass windows by Violet Oakley, Caldwell lighting and academic French paintings. After Gibson’s death in 1891 his daughter Mary inherited Maybrook and constructed the two-story vaulted music room in 1901. Described as ‘one of the Main Line’s most noteworthy and distinctive interiors’2, the present lot were one of the most prominent features in the room and were depicted there in an early 20th century photograph. The torcheres remained in Maybrook until the 21st century.
[1] W. Morrison, The Main Line: Country Houses of Philadelphia's Storied Suburb, 1870-1930, New York, 2002, pp.27-28
[2] Ed. E. Haskell, South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks, ‘Furniture Ancient and Modern’, London, 1875, p. 25 (illustrated).
Throughout the first quarter of the 20th century, the New York firm established in 1895 by Edward F. Caldwell and continued after his death in 1914 by Victor E. von Lossberg, was perhaps the leading American designer and manufacturer of lighting fixtures and decorative objects fashioned in metal and various other materials. Working from its foundry at 38 West 15th Street, the company supplied fine quality products to the most illustrious families in the United States. A sketch for torcheres of this model appears in 1902 in Caldwell’s design book titled C.13245 and though initially conceived for a height of only 16”, each aspect seen on the present lot is clearly visible in Caldwell’s design. The dating of this design firmly supports the attribution to Caldwell with the construction of the grand music room at Maybrook beginning in 1901.
Caldwell was inspired by numerous historical forms and for this commission turned to the highly fashionable and perpetually esteemed models of antiquity, which in their turn had been propagated to a wide audience in the 18th century by the renowned draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). The design of these candelabra is derived directly from a Hellenistic marble candelabrum of similar height currently preserved in the Farnese Collection at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. no. 6781), reassembled in the 18th century by Piranesi. This candelabrum was long celebrated as one of the collection’s most important items and its significance as a survivor of ancient furniture design is demonstrated by an early inclusion and illustration in the 1875 publication of the South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks (today the Victoria & Albert Museum).1
ORIGINS OF THE DESIGN
Of almost identical design and with carving clearly intended to imitate the Hellenistic candelabrum, the present lot differs in design only in the luxurious adaptation of the cranes into patinated bronze and the addition of the patinated bronze candle branches. A closely related design was executed in an etching of a candelabrum by Piranesi in Vasi, candelabri, cippi, sarcophagi, tripodi, lucerne, ed ornamenti antichi’ vol 2, 1778-1780. Other related Hellenistic and Roman torchere candelabra assembled by Piranesi are currently preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no. ANMichaelis.241 & ANMichaelis.242). With these designs widely distributed across Europe in the late 18th and early 19th century, the great designers of the second half of the 19th century sought to adapt them for their clients and as well a number of related models cast in bronze by the Chiurazzi Factory of Naples, it is clear from Caldwell’s design book that Piranesi’s designs were an early source for the firm’s production.
MAYBROOK
Maybrook was built in 1881 by the liquor and real estate baron Henry C. Gibson (1830-1891) and was designed by the prominent architects George Watson Hewitt and William D. Hewitt in the style of a Scottish baronial caste. The house was located in Wynnewood on the fabled ‘Main Line’ where Philadelphia’s wealthiest families commissioned sprawling country estates during America’s Gilded Age. With mansions built in a dazzling variety of historicist styles, Maybrook was no exception and contained splendid interiors with magnificent panelling, Minton tiles, painted glass windows by Violet Oakley, Caldwell lighting and academic French paintings. After Gibson’s death in 1891 his daughter Mary inherited Maybrook and constructed the two-story vaulted music room in 1901. Described as ‘one of the Main Line’s most noteworthy and distinctive interiors’2, the present lot were one of the most prominent features in the room and were depicted there in an early 20th century photograph. The torcheres remained in Maybrook until the 21st century.
[1] W. Morrison, The Main Line: Country Houses of Philadelphia's Storied Suburb, 1870-1930, New York, 2002, pp.27-28
[2] Ed. E. Haskell, South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks, ‘Furniture Ancient and Modern’, London, 1875, p. 25 (illustrated).