A George III Anglo-Indian Griffin form Ivory Candlestick Murshidabad, late 18th century, after the design by Sir William Chambers

modelled seated on its haunches, the drip-pan carved with lotus leaves, raised on a leaf and guilloche-carved collar, supported by the seated griffin, on a rectangular plinth

Comparative Literature

N. Goodison, 'William Chambers's Furniture', Furniture History, 1990, vol. XXVI, p. 67-89.
N. Goodison, Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton, London, 1974, pp. 157-58.
J. Harris and M. Snodin, eds., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III, New Haven, 1996, pp. 160-62.
J. Bourne and V. Brett, Lighting in the Domestic Interior, London, 1991, p. 122, figs. 411 & 413.
E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, cat. no. 60, col. pl. 106.

Of exceptional quality. In overall good condition. The tips of both wings have been broken and re-stuck and with some discolouration. Both front feet cracked and re-stuck.
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The design of such griffin-form candlesticks can reliably be attributed to Sir William Chambers (1726-1796), the architect to George III. Their design is published in the third edition of his Treatise on the Decorative Parts of Civil Architecture of 1791 (see J Harris, Sir William Chambers, Kinght of the Polar Star, London, 1970, fig. 192). Chambers descibes the designs on this plate as including 'ornamental utensils, designed for the Earl of Charlemont, for Lord Melbourne, and for some decorations for my own house'. A  hand-colored presentation sketch by John Yenn (d. 1821), who served as Chambers's assistant and pupil from 1764 to 1771 is in the collections of The Victoria and Albert Museum and shows a much earlier version of this design with minor variations such as on the decoration of the plinth (see J. Bourne and V. Brett, op. cit., London, 1991, p. 122, fig. 413).

Several examples of this model appear in ormolu and are attributed to Chambers' preferred bronzier Diederich Nicolaus Anderson. These include examples a pair sold anonymously at Christie's London, 12 November 1998, lot 5 (£155,500); a pair at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, a third pair with Egyptian porphyry bases with the National Trust, Hinton Ampner House, Hampshire (illustrated in J. Harris and M. Snodin, ibid, p. 162, fig. 242); and a pair sold Sotheby's Florence, 6-7 April 1987, lot 590. All these would have been made prior to Anderson's death in 1767 and it seems likely that Chambers then passed his design to Josiah Wedgwood who produced this model in his Basaltware.

The current candlestick is closely related to a pair of in The Gerstenfeld Collection where they are discussed by Amin Jaffer in an essay on Anglo-Indian ivory furniture. Jaffer suggests that while it is not inconceivable that these ivory examples were produced from a model in another medium, the inclusion of the medallion on the chain around the neck of the griffin does not appear on ceramic examples while the drip-pans and socket differ from ormolu comparables, and perhaps suggests that these were produced from the detailed drawings.