A Pair of George IV Mahogany Solid Vases or Stands, Circa 1825, Attributed to Gillows

Description

height 16 1/4 in.; width 11 1/4 in.

41 cm; 28.5 cm

Condition Report

Provenance

Tissington Hall, Derbyshire, likely commissioned by Lord Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens (1753-1839);

Lord St. Helens & Sir William FitzHerbert: The Collections of a Diplomat and a Courtier, Christie's London, 22 January 2009, lot 548;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Literature

'Tissington Hall. - I. Derbyshire, The Seat of Sir Hugo Meynell FitzHerbert, Bt.', Country Life, 11 March 1911, p. 342 and 345, illustrated in situ in the Drawing Room

H.A. Tipping, 'Tissington Hall', English Homes Period II, Late Tudor and Early Stuart 1558-1649, Vol. II, London, 1927, p. 194, fig. 235

G. Jackson-Stops, 'Tissington Hall, Derbyshire - I', Country Life, 15 July 1976, p. 159, fig. 3

G. Jackson-Stops, 'Tissington Hall, Derbyshire - II', Country Life, 22 July 1976, p. 216-217, fig. 8

Catalogue Note

Vases of this form were generally conceived as part of a combined display alongside a sideboard, an arrangement that first emerged under the Neoclassical taste of Robert Adam and his contemporaries in the 1760s and 1770s. It remained popular well into the early nineteenth century, with Regency taste often displaying an embellished and developed version of the more sober Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century. While these examples are solid, vases of this type were often hollowed out, sometimes to contain cutlery or plates, or even to hold water, as in the case of the Shardeloes examples that were offered recently at Sotheby's London, 5 July 2023, lot 34.

These particular vases were long housed at Tissington Hall in Derbyshire, seat of the FitzHerbert family. This Jacobean country house remains in family hands to this day, and the lord of the manor at the time when these vases were made was the 1st Baron St Helens, Alleyne FitzHerbert (1753-1839). A prominent diplomat, he served as Minister Plenipotentiary to both Russia and Spain, and the volcano in Washington called Mount St. Helens is named after him.