A pair of George III carved alabaster urns and pedestals, late 18th/early 19th century, possibly to a design by Sir Robert Smirke

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

December 10, 04:34 PM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 90,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property of the Trustees of the Second Baron Hesketh's Will Trust

A pair of George III carved alabaster urns and pedestals, late 18th/early 19th century, possibly to a design by Sir Robert Smirke

the urns after the Antique, with spirally fluted bodies and conforming lids with foliate knops on an egg-and-dart moulded cavetto rim flanked by twin-handles in the form of grotesque masks, on a spirally fluted socle and stepped plinth base, the pedestals with reeded friezes and corners, centred by fanned bosses on a moulded plinth base, the reverse fitted with mahogany cupboard doors

173cm. high, 57cm. wide, 57cm. deep; 5ft. 8in., 1ft. 10½in., 1ft. 10½in.

Possibly acquired by George Fermor, 3^rd Earl Pomfret (1768-1830) for Easton Neston, Northamptonshire;
Thence by descent

Avary Tipping, 'Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, The Seat of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, Bt. - II', Country Life, 14 November 1908, p. 671 (partially illustrated at the foot of the Great Staircase);
Phillips & MacConnal, Draft Inventory of Contents of Easton Neston House, Northamptonshire, 1919, p. 6 and listed in the Hall as a ‘Pair of urn shaped vases in marble, also pedestals of same, 6ft high;
Anon., An Inventory of the Mansion and Contents of Easton Neston House, Towcester, 1923, p. 10 and listed in the Staircase as a ‘Pair of XVIII Century Alabaster vases and pedestals’;
H. Avary Tipping, 'Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, The Seat of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, Bt. - II', Country Life, 27 August 1927, p. 297 (illustrated at the foot of the Great Staircase);
J. Heward, Country Houses of Northamptonshire, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, London, 1996, p. 198, fig. 255 (one illustrated at the foot of the Great Staircase).

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

Peter Reid, Burke's and Savills Guide to Country Houses, Vol. 2, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, London, 1980. p.25;
John Wilton-Ely, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Complete Etchings, Volume II, San Francisco, 1994, p. 1009, pl. 931.