A Pair of Late Regency Patinated Bronze Torchères, 19th Century

Christie's New York, 21 October 1999, lot 268;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Conceived in the Egyptian taste and designed to support oil lamps in the ‘antique’ manner, these elegant bronze torchères relate closely to designs published by Thomas Hope in his seminal Household Furniture and Interior Decoration of 1807. For a similar pair illustrated in Household Furniture see plate X and a single illustrated in plate L.  

Hope’s influence and the development of the high Regency taste spread widely and were adopted by many of the leading designers and craftsmen of the time; Henry Moses published A Collection of Antique Vases, Altars, Paterae, Tripods, Candelabra, Sarcophagi in 1814, plates 83-86. Demand was satisfied by bronze-founders, such as Benjamin Vulliamy and Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, along with other major retailers of lighting such as Messenger and Sons of Birmingham and London who illustrated a related stand in their 1830s trade-card, noting they were 'Manufacturers of Chandeliers, Tripods and Lamps of every description in Bronze and Ormolu' (C. Gilbert and A. Wells-Cole, The Fashionable Fire Place, Temple Newsam House, Leeds 1985, fig. 95).