Candlestick, one of pair

Date1698-1699

Marked by William Denny (working ca. 1679 - 1720)

Marked by John Bache (fl. ca. 1680 - 1720)

OriginEngland, London

MediumSilver (Britannia)

DimensionsO.H.: 8 3/4"; W.(base): 5 1/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1962-188,1

DescriptionOne of pair candlestick silver. Flat flange of octagonal plan with applied circle of high-chased gadroons on upper surface; stem, incorporating socket, in the form of a stop-fluted column with multiple moldings below flange and at base; broader flange of octagonal plan with applied circle of high-chased gadroons at base of stem, base of stem flaring to juncture with base with inner molding and outer band of gadroons in circular arrangement on top of base; stepped base of octagonal plan incorporating band of high-chased gadroons. Uninscribed as to owner.
Label TextThe predominant form of late seventeenth-century candlestick is architectural in character with a columnar stem, either fluted, as in this instance, or of clustered gothic type. Such candlesticks were fashioned from sheet with the fluting and gadrooning chased. Their lack of sturdiness may have prompted William Fitzhugh to write his London purchasing agents in 1688 from his plantation on the Potomac River in
Stafford County, Virginia, "the plate that I would have bought pray let it be plain and strong. . . A pair of silver Candlesticks less than them sent last year by Mr. Hayward but more substantial."

A pair of similar candlesticks by Thomas Jenkins of London (1699/1700) is also in the Colonial Williamsburg collection (accession 1936-444, 1-2).
MarkingsBritannia standard. Makers' mark "DE" with "B" above and "A" below in block letters within a quatrefoil, lion's head erased, Britannia, and date letter on underside of each base.
ProvenanceGarrard & Co. Ltd., London (purchased from J. c. Lowe, London,1962)
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