£400
A pair of George IV Thomas Messenger bronze colza rhyton oil lamps, circa 1820, each in the form of a boar's head supporting the reservoir, on acanthus stepped rectangular plinths, both stamped 'Messenger', 15cm high, 21cm wide, (incomplete and later converted to electricity) (2). Note: these distinctive lamps are closely related to a pair stamped Messenger now in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A further un-stamped ormolu pair once owned by the Duke of Newcastle is in the Leeds City Art Galleries at Temple Newsam. The design originates from the ancient rhyton of the sepulchral monument to Augustus Urbanus on the Appian Way in Rome, illustrated by G.B. Piranesi and published in 'Vasi, Candelabri, Cippi, Sarcofagi...'(1778). Thomas Messenger & Sons advertised as 'Manufacturers of Chandeliers, Tripods and Lamps of every description in bronze and ormolu'. The rhyton features on the firm's trade-card of the 1830s (see C. Gilbert and A Wells-Cole, The Fashionable Fire Place, 1660-1840, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 1985, pp.145 and 140, fig. 95).
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