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Lot Essay
William Beckford - connoisseur, aesthete, millionaire, and eccentric - is remembered as one of the most colourful figures in the history of collecting. Born in 1760 to vast wealth, he used it to amass one of the most extraordinary collections ever formed.
These candlesticks are amongst his first commissions from 1781 as part of his ‘coming-of-age’ plate ordered from one of the leading silversmith of the time: John Scofield.
Based on a design by Robert (or possibly James) Adam, dating from the late 1760s, they are in the neoclassical taste, decorated in the simplified style typical of the 1780s and like much of the silver commissioned by Beckford before 1800. The model proved to be a popular design, commissioned as early as 1775 and supplied to Harewood House in 1779 and to Ernst Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1771-1851), fifth son of George, in 1791, amongst others.
Despite the change in fashion, Beckford continued adding to the set until 1817, so that at least eighteen of these candlesticks survive either at Brodick Castle or were sold from the Hamilton collection in the 1980s.
For an illustration of the Brodick Castle candlesticks, see The Beckford Collection, Brodick Castle, National Trust for Scotland, and Derek E. Ostergard, ed., William Beckford 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent, 2001, p. 306.
These candlesticks are amongst his first commissions from 1781 as part of his ‘coming-of-age’ plate ordered from one of the leading silversmith of the time: John Scofield.
Based on a design by Robert (or possibly James) Adam, dating from the late 1760s, they are in the neoclassical taste, decorated in the simplified style typical of the 1780s and like much of the silver commissioned by Beckford before 1800. The model proved to be a popular design, commissioned as early as 1775 and supplied to Harewood House in 1779 and to Ernst Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1771-1851), fifth son of George, in 1791, amongst others.
Despite the change in fashion, Beckford continued adding to the set until 1817, so that at least eighteen of these candlesticks survive either at Brodick Castle or were sold from the Hamilton collection in the 1980s.
For an illustration of the Brodick Castle candlesticks, see The Beckford Collection, Brodick Castle, National Trust for Scotland, and Derek E. Ostergard, ed., William Beckford 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent, 2001, p. 306.