A Pair of George III Mahogany, Ebonised and Ebony-Strung Pedestals, Circa 1780

Sir Harry and Lady Hague, The Chantry, Hertfordshire;

Possibly Professor Luigi Anton Laura;

Christie's London, 23 May 2013, lot 20;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Pedestals may have been commonplace in the Neoclassical interior of the late eighteenth century, but were seldom designed with the slender elegance of the present pair. The array of stands found in the eighteenth-century interior can generally be divided into two categories: robust, architecturally-influenced pedestals for supporting heavy busts, or torchères, which only supported candles and so could have lighter, more fanciful forms that included elaborately pierced Rococo structures or slim shafts on tripod feet. The present pair of stands are clearly pedestals in construction and design, and yet with a narrowness of profile that adds some of the lightness of a typical torchère-form stand. This is well illustrated when comparing the present pair with the various pedestals designed by Robert Adam, who included them in the a great number of his best-known interiors. Well-documented Adam pedestals such as the examples for Harewood House (displayed in the Yellow Drawing Room), 19 Arlington Street (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, W.25A-1934) and Croome Court (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1948-71-2a,b) are all somewhat broader, with distinct, often cube-form upper sections and a less dramatic taper to the shafts. This is generally consistent with the Neoclassical pedestals in published books of designs by the likes of Chippendale and Hepplewhite in the period as well. While the present pedestals are clearly in the ‘Adam’ style, and even incorporate the fan motif that recurred in Adam’s furniture and ceiling designs, the closest Robert Adam himself seems to come to designing a pedestal with such a strong taper is a preliminary drawing of a pedestal for Charles Hamilton dated 1761 (now in John Soane’s Museum, SM Adam volume 54/3/53). However, the overall impression differs notably from the present pair, which in their combination of this refined narrow silhouette with well-chosen mahogany veneers, are distinguished and highly rare.

These pedestals once belonged to Sir Harry and Lady Lily Hague, whose collection of furniture was amassed during the mid-twentieth century under the guidance of the celebrated furniture historian Robert Wemyss Symonds (1889–1958). Their collection was discussed in depth in two articles by Margaret Jourdain in Apollo, 1947 pp.38-40 and pp.75-78, 82. Most of the collection was sold at Sotheby’s London on 23 June 1961, but these pedestals were retained and were presumably sold privately, since they do not appear in the public records for auctions of the Hague collection.