A PAIR OF GEORGE III TORCHÈRES ATTRIBUTED TO ROBERT ADAM AND THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

The torchères retain some of the original gilding.
Note: The statuary marble inserts are later replacements.
Robert Adam designed similar stands with concave sides for the Earl of Derby’s house on Grosvenor Square in London, England, and for William Weddell of Newby Hall, Yorkshire, England.
A suite of six torchères with concave triform bases with many related features was supplied by Chippendale to Edwin Lascelles at Harewood House, Yorkshire, circa 1779. These torchères are a simplified version of the Harewood set, while characteristic elements such as the rams’ heads, guilloche bands and acanthus carving are virtually identical, leaving little doubt that this pair were also produced by the Chippendale workshop.

Literature:

Robert Adam, Works in Architecture, vol. I, 1773, pl. VIII, nos. 1-3.
Desmond Fitzgerald, ‘Chippendale’s Place in the English Rococo’, Furniture History annual journal, 1968, pl. 4; a drawing for a pedestal with rams’ heads.
Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, vol. II, 1978, p. 209, illus. 382.
Jill Low, ‘Newby Hall - Two Late Eighteenth Century Inventories’, Furniture History annual journal, 1986, fig. 1.
Illustrated:
Ronald Phillips Ltd, catalogue, 2017, pp. 34–7.