Candlestick, one of a pair

Dateca. 1775

Attributed to Matthew Boulton & John Fothergill

OriginEngland, Birmingham

MediumFused Silverplate (Sheffield Plate); pitch/resin; fabric (on base)

DimensionsOH: 12 1/16"; OW (base): 4 5/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1971-405,2A&B

DescriptionSilver candlestick with trumpet shaped transition to a shaped square base with beaded shoulder and incline, inward curved sides and clipped corners. The sides are ornamented with a guilloched banding with rosetted corners.
Label TextJames Wyatt, the architect, was influential in the formation of Boulton's shop style of the 1770s, providing Boulton with designs, among others, for candlesticks of this elegant pattern, which were produced both in sterling and in fused silverplate. Boulton utilized this same fluted, trumpet-shaped transition to a shaped square base with a beaded shoulder and inclined, inward-curved sides and clipped corners (the sides ornamented with a guilloche banding with rosetted corners) in his drawings for a two-handled cup and a jug. A cup of 1777/78 after the former drawing is in the Birmingham Assay Office. Rowe illustrates three jugs related to the latter drawing. The bases of two of these of 1774/75 and 1775/76 deviate from the drawing and from those of this pair of candlesticks in their straight sides and omission of the beading. The third jug of 1776/77 retains the fluted transition, but it is supported on a circular base.

Patrick Robertson, the Edinburgh silversmith, who acted as a retail agent for Boulton in the 1770s, produced a silver hot water or tea urn in 1778/79, presently in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, which is clearly in this Boulton manner.
ProvenanceVendor: S. J. Shrubsole Ltd., London

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