Poise, Power, Perfection: Six Outstanding Works by Paul Storr

SHRUBSOLE

1

S.J. Shrubsole 26 East 81st Street New York, NY 10028 Tel: (212) 753-8920 Fax: (212) 754-5192 inquiries@shrubsole.com www.shrubsole.com

Regular Hours: Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Summer Hours: (Memorial Day to Labor Day) Monday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Copyright 2021 S.J. Shrubsole, Corp.

All rights reserved.

2

Poise, Power, Perfection Six Outstanding Works by Paul Storr An Exhibition

17 June – 16 July 2021

3

Left: Drawing by John Flaxman, courtesy of the Huntington Museum. Right: Detail of a centerpiece, pp. 18-19

4

Poise, Power, Perfection: Six Outstanding Works by Paul Storr Paul Storr’s name may be the most recognizable in all of English silver. His workshop was wildly prolific, and his designs—or those of his designers—transformed taste to a degree today’s “tastemakers” could hardly imagine. A rare week passes in our shop without a client or prospective client wishing to sell, or to buy, pieces of Paul Storr silver.

Some of the most valuable silver we handle is so because of its extreme rarity. Pieces by Paul de Lamerie or Paul Revere come on the market infrequently. By contrast, Storr’s work is so numerous that you could buy a piece every day and hardly make a dent. And when it was made, almost all of Storr’s work represented the highest standards of 19th-century silversmithing. Ninety-nine percent of the Storr pieces that we see started life in the “fine quality and good finish” category. Decoration was crisp, details were sharp, marks were clean, and surfaces were beautiful and umarred. These objects were made for discerning customers, and Storr’s reputation relied on his shop’s exacting quality controls.

Despite all this, the vast majority of Storr silver traded today does not interest us or our clients.

Much of it is now worn, with decorations rubbed down into blobby lumps; the metal buffed until the life goes out of it; the engraving overpolished to softness, or even erased and replaced with new designs. Others have suffered damage and repair, or have been altered to suit the fashions of various generations.

A few pieces are in excellent condition, and these we are pleased to buy and sell. The meat dishes, flatware, serving pieces, etc., which we think of as practical silver: objects that have been used happily and with care over two hundred years, and which continue to show Storr’s mastery of art and craft. These may be good pieces to adorn the dining table on a special occasion (even if that special occasion is nothing

more than your daily dinner). You will often see several such pieces in our annual catalog, on our website, or at antique shows where we exhibit.

A number of them are included at the end of this catalog.

Finally, there are the masterpieces. Because, while Storr ran a bustling shop churning out vast quantities of aristocratic plate, he was also commissioned to fashion some of the extraordinary metalworking achievements of the age.

Through the firm Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, Storr made objects not just for the royal family, but for many of the most wealthy, ambitious, fastidious, exacting, and influential buyers in the realm. As the main supplier to the Prince Regent and the Royal Dukes, he realized the visions of master draftsmen like Stothard and Flaxman with a precision and a delicacy that would delight Faberge. These are the objects that give us—and, we hope, you—goosebumps. For just as Storr, at his best, expected everything to be perfect, so we, in an effort to represent him well, ardently seek the very few surviving examples of his work wherein his best designs are preserved in pristine condition, retaining their beauty of proportion and their exquisite detail.

We now have the rare pleasure of showcasing not one or two, but six masterpieces of silver

by Paul Storr: pieces that meet both his and our highest standards. No later-engraved coats of arms, no worn-out engraving, no missing liners, no plated stands. No buffed-up surfaces, no married covers, and nothing that would have gone to the scullery.

These “visible personifications of absolute perfection” (to borrow from Wilde) comprise the first exhibition in our shop since the onset of Covid. Here, and in the following pages, you can see for yourself the very objects that delighted and amazed Regency society, from George IV on down.

5

A Pair of Regency SilverGilt Wine Coasters 1812 Height: 3� in.; Diameter: 5� in.; Weight: 55 oz. 12 dwt.

Each of heavy cast silver, the pierced frieze of infant bacchus figures holding baskets of grapes and dancing in front of a pierced trellis, stiff-leaf lower rim and ribbon-tied thread upper rim, stamped at base “Rundell Bridge et Rundell Aurifices Regis et Principis Walliae Regentis Britannias”. The arms are the Royal arms of Scotland quartering Stewart and Randolph impaling those of Ainslie for Francis Stuart (1771-1848), 10th Earl of Moray, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Philip Ainslie of Pilton.

6

We begin with the whimsical Bacchic scene on this remarkable pair of wine coasters made by Storr for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. By 1812 Storr was at the height of his powers—among other things, supplying Rundell’s with the Prince Regent’s “Grand Service”, probably the most ambitious silver service ever made. Classical revivalism was in vogue in Britain, with droves of aristocrats returning from their Grand Tours with a taste for antiquity. So the classical motif seen here, with requisite grape baskets, must have struck a chord with its target audience.

Storr, and Rundell’s more generally, were known for massive, cast silver-gilt coasters such as these. There are several designs recorded (grapes and grape leaves...an infant bacchus with a recumbent leopard...) but we believe these are the only surviving examples of this charming pastoral design.

A compelling design is just one prerequisite for an object to rank among Storr’s very best. Equally important is its state of preservation. The antique dealer’s favorite word, “condition”, does a lot

7

8

of work, encompassing a bewildering array of connoisseurial factors. The very best way to explain what we mean by condition is to show an example of perfection. This exceptional cup and cover is one of the most pristine pieces we have ever had by Paul Storr—you could cut your finger on the decoration.

This is likely because until sold in London in the 1990s it was kept in a fitted box.

In addition to the stunning condition, it is a piece of real beauty, with a perfect balance between the plain surfaces and the tastefully deployed classical decoration. Its remarkable quality of design and execution may be explained by the fact that the recipient of the cup, Edward Wigan, in addition to being the Lieutenant Colonel of the West Regiment, was also a silversmith. In the small world of London silversmiths, Wigan and Storr would certainly have known each other, and Wigan would have been qualified to note any deficiencies in workmanship.

A Fine George III Silver Cup and Cover 1809 Height: 15� in.; Weight: 139 oz. 4 dwt.

Of campana form, the body applied with trailing grapevine and grape bunches above laurel branches enclosing engraved arms on one side and a presentation inscription on the other, the lower body gadrooned and with handles rising from Bacchus heads, the flaring circular foot with a band of laurel leaves, the cover engraved with a crest and chased with a palmette centered by a pinecone finial, marked on base rim and cover, the base stamped RUNDELL BRIDGE ET RUNDELL AURIFICES REGIS ET PRINCIPIS WALLIAE LONDINI FECERUNT. Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, 17 October 2008, lot 166 Partridge Fine Art, London, 1998 $95,000 9

These are, to the best of our knowledge, the only extant set of eight candlesticks by Paul Storr. They are also among the largest and most ambitious candlesticks made in Britain in the 19th century— which is another way of saying, “ever”.

Another instance of Storr doing his very best work on behalf of Rundell’s, they are in superb condition, with crisp decoration and brilliant gilding, and we believe they are among the finest examples of Paul Storr’s work anywhere in the world.

A Set of Eight Massive Silver-Gilt Candlesticks 1816 Height: 13� in.; Weight: 390 oz.

Of cast and gilded silver, the circular bases mounted with heads of the four seasons, the baluster stem decorated with leaves and flowers.

Stamped on base “Rundell Bridge Et Rundell Aurifices Regis Et Principis Wallie Regentis Britannias Londini.”

Engraved on bases and removable bobeches with a double crest and with the initials BC below a coronet.

Provenance: George Watson-Taylor (1771-1841), probably sold at his auction in 1832, presumably purchased by Harriet Beauclerk (1777-1837), Duchess of St. Albans; thence to her step-daughter Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906) Sale, The Coutts Heirlooms, Christie’s, 17 March 1920, lot 109 10

The double crests are those of Watson-Taylor for George and Anna Watson-Taylor. George Watson (1771-1841), was a Jamaican planter. He married Anna, the daughter of Sir John Taylor, likewise a Jamaican planter. Anna’s uncle was Sir Simon Taylor, yet another Jamaican planter. Certainly the richest man in Jamaica, he was also probably the richest man in the realm. George and Anna were living an unremarkable life in London, when her uncle and brother died in quick succession, and Anna inherited Simon’s entire fortune. At a stroke the couple had an income said to be between sixty and ninety thousand pounds a year and were among the richest people in England.

Like any self-respecting Powerball winner, they started to spend wild sums of money on the Maybachs of the day: art, objects of vertu, books, furniture, silver, parties, staff, houses...with no thought to the future, until the future caught up with them. Despite Watson-Taylor’s opposition (he was now an MP) the anti-slavery movement won major legislative victories, and the new laws decimated the income from his plantations. They were nearly broke by 1822, and so came the first of many sales. They were flat broke in 1832, when the last of the collection was dispersed. Watson-Taylor died forgotten in Edinburgh in 1841. “No man” Sir Robert Peel said of him “ever bought ridicule at so high a price.”* These candlesticks were sold at one of these auctions, and their second home was nearly as wild a ride as the first. Whether bought at the sale * Reader, won’t you prove the Prime Minister wrong?

11

12

13

14

by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, and sold to her, or whether bought by her directly, they went to the collection of Harriet Beauclerk, the Duchess of St. Albans, whose collection of Paul Storr silver was both vast and exceptionally good. Rags to riches redux: Harriet had been an exceptionally attractive child actress. At fourteen, she had caught the eye of Thomas Coutts, banker to the Royal family. When Coutts’s wife died, he married Harriet, and they remained happily married until his death in 1822.

Years later, she, having reached the age of 49, married the Duke of St. Albans, who was 26, and, for a Duke anyway, poor as a churchmouse. She died, and the marriage having been childless, the whole of her estate, including these candlesticks, went to her step-granddaughter Angela Burdett-Coutts, whose initials and coronet are also engraved on the bases of the sticks. The last time these candlesticks were on the market was at the Coutts Heirlooms sale at Christie’s in 1920.

We’ve seen classical motifs already in the wine coasters and candlesticks, but these wine coolers represent the apex of Storr’s classicism. The Warwick vase is an enormous Roman vase, five feet ten inches in height, dating from around 120AD. It was discovered in 1771 by the Scottish painter and antiquarian Gavin Hamilton, who dug it out from the silted up shore of a lake at the villa of the emperor Hadrian, at Tivoli, outside Rome. It made its way to the Earl of Warwick, who installed it on the grounds of Warwick Castle, where it quickly became a tourist attraction.

So popular was the vase that models in silver began to be made around 1812—a set of four made for the Prince Regent bear hallmarks between 1812 and 1817. And, for what would have been by far the largest piece of hallmarked English silver ever made, Lord Lansdowne hired Rundells to make a full-size cast. Rundells sent the designer William Theed to take all the measurements and make the molds, but, tragically for silver enthusiasts, the plan was abandoned.

As this exhibition, and this accompanying booklet, seek to distinguish “the best from the rest”, a few connoisseurial points regarding wine coolers and

A Pair of George IV Silver Warwick Vase Wine Coolers 1821 Height: 7� in.; Weight: 216 oz.

Formed as the Warwick vase, the body applied with classical heads of Bacchus on a leopard skin ground below grapevine decoration, on square pedestal foot, intertwining grapevine handles, removable liner and rim, all parts marked. $165,000 15

A Pair of George III Silver Candelabra 1797-98 Height: 23 in.; Weight: 412 oz.

Each with circular base and tapering cylindrical shaft decorated with bands of stiff leaves, anthemions and beads, the removable upper section with tall central urn with rosette band supporting a lobbed nozzle and flanked by three “S’ shaped leafy arms with scrolling snake supports rising to lobbed nozzles. with removable beaded bobeches, stamped with Britannia marks. $250,000

Warwick vases may be in order. By 1820, every craftsman in Europe was making replicas, in brass, iron, silver, silver-plate, bronze, ceramics, etc. But as the story of Rundells sending their top sculptor, Theed, to Warwick castle to make exact measurements illustrates, translating “the design” of the vase into a smaller version is not a simple task, and many Warwick vases are, in one way or another, off. Their proportions, or the accuracy of the grape vines, or the bacchuses, just aren’t right, and so of course they are not attractive objects. Storr’s Warwick vases never have this problem: they are all beautifully executed.

Very fine pairs such as this are rare, and this particular pair is quite unusual. The liners, which usually sit in a ring, here screw down to the base.

They are also unusually small—small enough to sit comfortably on the table. This small scale combined with their great weight makes them wonderful to handle. Last, but most important, they are in pristine condition, apparently untouched since the day they were made.

Some excellent Paul Storr pieces may not even have been made by Paul Storr. The beautiful and somewhat mysterious candelabra opposite follow a design drawing by Jean-Guillaume Moitte at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (left). It is one of the many designs Moitte supplied to the great Parisian silversmith Henri Auguste. Auguste was making candelabra of this model as early as 1789—a gilt pair of this date, possibly made for William Beckford, sold from the Safra Collection at Sotheby’s in 2010, and a set of twelve, also of 1789, was made for the Duke of York (one pair is now in the Metropolitan Museum, another pair is in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).

These candelabra bear the mark of Paul Storr, but curiously they are also struck with Britannia Standard hallmarks (below left). The use of the higher .958 standard was uncommon in England at the time, but it was the standard for French silver. Either Storr (or his exacting client) wanted his pieces to match French examples down to the subtlest difference of finish, and so used the higher standard—or these candelabra are in fact of French manufacture

16

17

18

and were simply sent by Storr to the Goldsmiths Hall to be marked. It is impossible to know which is the case and difficult to know which is the better story: an obsessive Francophile client demanding the purest copy of a French piece, or a fantastic pair of French candelabra being smuggled out of Paris around the time of the Reign of Terror. Unfortunately, the crest engraved on them does nothing to answer the question, and the only identical pair, which are part of the amazing collection of silver at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge are marked on one by Storr, and on the other by a retailer named Francis Magniac. As Eric Shrubsole would say, if you buy them, you can tell any story you want about them over dinner.

Wrapping up our tour of Storr’s tours-de-force is this monumental centerpiece, composed from one of the most important designs in English Regency silver. The only object in the exhibition already sold as of publication, it represents the extraordinary collaboration of artist, modeler, and silversmith—all working under the direction, once again, of Rundell, Bridge & Rundell.

John Flaxman, the greatest English sculptor of his day, designed figural groups and bas-relief friezes for Rundell’s most important works in silver. When the Prince of Wales, later George IV, commissioned two massive candelabra for his London palace Carlton House, Rundell’s engaged Flaxman to design their sculptural bases. The subjects of the figural groups were the Garden of the Hesperides and Mercury Delivering the Infant Bacchus to the Nymphs of Nysa. The finished products, marked by Paul Storr in 1810 and in 1816, are acknowledged to be Flaxman’s greatest fully-modeled works in silver.

Flaxman’s greatest bas-relief work for Rundell’s was the Shield of Achilles, marked by Philip Rundell in 1821 and sold to George IV for display at his coronation banquet that year.

While Rundell’s subsequently made four more Achilles Shields, the present candelabrum is the only example of the Mercury sculpture known outside the Royal example. Rundell’s also made just one other version of the Hesperides sculpture, for a candelabrum in the collection of the Worshipful

A Regency SilverGilt Centerpiece 1816 Height: 40� in.; Weight: 867 oz.

The stem formed as Mercury descending amidst a cluster of grapevine delivering the infant Bacchus to the Nymphs of Nysa, each a fully modeled figure in classical garb, on a circular plinth supported by acanthus leaves flanked by three fully-modeled figures of Bacchic panthers, on an incurved triangular base with shell and foliate apron on three scroll and shell feet, the twelve-light branches with six bifurcated scrolling-vine branches, each terminating in two sockets with removable nozzles, the center formed as an acanthus calyx, the base engraved on three sides with a coat-of-arms within acanthus mantling, the nozzles each engraved with a crest, with wood support under base, marked throughout; the base stamped RUNDELL BRIDGE ET RUNDELL AURIFICES REGIS ET PRINCIPIS WALLIAE REGENTIS BRITANNIAS. Provenance: Sir Richard Sutton, 2nd Bt. (17981855); thence by descent to Sir Richard Vincent Sutton, 5th Bt. (1853-1918) The Trustees of the Late Sir R.V. Sutton, Bt., sold Christie’s, London, 31 March 1976, lot 130 Christie’s, New York, 26 October 2007, lot 138 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, museum purchase with funds donated in honor of Thomas S. Michie.

19

Company of Goldsmiths (illustrated in Shirley Bury, “Flaxman as a Designer of Silverwork,” in David Bindman, ed., John Flaxman, 1979, fig.

185a, p.144).

Rundell’s bill for the Royal candelabra proudly emphasizes Flaxman’s authorship, describing them as “2 rich candelabra composed from designs made by Flaxman on the subject of Mercury presenting Bacchus to the Nymphs.

The other the serpents guarding the tree of Hesperides” (as quoted in E. Alfred Jones, The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, 1911, p. 116).

Flaxman’s finished design for this candelabrum, in the form of a pen-and-wash rendering was just the first step in the complex process of creating the work in silver. The two-dimensional drawing had to be translated into three dimensions by a skilled modeler. RundeII’s employed sculptor William Theed R.A. as chief modeler in their workshops from around 1804 to 1817, and his authorship of the models for the Mercury candelabrum is documented by the artist Joseph

20

Farington. In 1811, Farington visited Rundell’s Dean Street workshops, recording that Theed showed him “several of his models: Candelabrums for the Prince of Wales & other works and described the great scale on which Rundell & Bridge (silversmiths) carry on their works” (Farington Diary, September 20, 1811, as quoted in Christopher Hartop, Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell & Bridge 1797-1843, pp. 99-100).

The remaining pages show examples of Storr’s work, in stock as of publication, which belong to the “excellent” category, rather than the “masterpiece” category we’ve explored thus far. In other words, they are pieces suited for daily use: the dining table, the sideboard, etc. If you asked the late Albert Sack about his book on American furniture colloquially known as “Good, Better, Best”, he would say the more honest title would have been “Good, Better, Best, and In Stock.” In that fine tradition, we’ve included these items in the exhibition both as a point of comparison, and to give a small relief to the pocketbook!

A Large George III Silver Platter 1812 Length: 22 in.; Weight: 112 oz.

The arms are those of the famous Onslow family, which included the Earls of Onslow of Clandon Park. The Onslow Service, now dispersed and so known only from bits and pieces, appears to have been one of the most significant commissions Storr received during the Regency period. $25,000

An Unusual George III Silver Meat Dish 1810 Length: 23� in.; Weight: 142 oz.

Normally the “well” on the platter would have a series of drainage furrows leading to it, and this would be a “well and tree” platter, but there is no tree on this one—so it is just a “well” platter, or, well, just a platter. $18,000

21

A William IV Silver Wine Cooler 1830 Height: 11 in.; Weight : 40 oz.

Another piece in superb condition.

This model is usually from the 1770s, but…Storr wasn’t working then, and it is nice to find one by Storr. $75,000

A Silver Flatware Service for Twelve from the Sutton Service 1819 This fine flatware service is part of much larger service sold by the heirs of Sir Richard Sutton in London in 1978, which included the magnificent centerpiece candelabrum (pp.18-19). Sutton was a phenomenally wealthy young man who commissioned an enormous dinner service from Rundells in 1819. Though most of the service bears the mark of Philip Rundell, some of the most important pieces are marked by Storr. $35,000 22

A George III Silver Well & Tree 1805 Length: 16� in.; Weight : 83 oz.

While this is certainly not the most important piece of Paul Storr silver in the world, it IS one of the most bizarrely heavy. The gauge of the metal that went into the making of this little gem is such that when you go to pick it up, you initially think it must have been nailed to the table. $15,000

A George III Silver Tea Urn 1811 Height: 15 in.; Weight : 202 oz.

This is one of the pieces in this show which almost, almost makes it into the awe-inspiring company of the first six pieces.

It is in superb condition, it is a classic Storr design—balanced and bold—but it lacks any of the really great decoration.

Its fluting is fine and its gadrooning is gutsy, but without egg-and-dart, palmettes, or acanthus, it just slightly misses the cut. $32,500

23