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Lot Essay
These pedestals may have been made for a house built circa 1741-1745 or alternatively they may have been part of the furnishings of Duddingston House, Midlothian which was commissioned by James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn in 1760 and built by Sir William Chambers between 1763-1768. The classical villa, just outside Edinburgh, was commissioned as a summer house for entertaining with pleasure gardens laid out by Robert Robinson in the manner of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and completed at a cost of £30,000. After Lord Abercorn’s death in 1789 the estate passed to his heirs and was subsequently let.
The stands can be related to a group of Kentian mask-headed pedestals dating from the 1730s and 1740s of which there are examples at Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth and Longford Castle (R. Edwards & P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 159, fig. 1, 2 & 4) as well as in the Victoria and Albert Museum [W47-1962] and a pair supplied to William, 2nd Earl of Harrington (d. 1799) for Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire (sold most recently from the di Portanova Collection, Christie’s, New York, 20 October 2000, lot 92, $143,500).This group has traditionally been attributed to Benjamin Goodison – and indeed Goodison's delivery of the pair of George II Ionic-capped 'nymph' pedestals to Hampton Court under the direction of William Kent in 1732-1733 (ibid, fig. 1), which display the same foliate-carved spreading S-scroll base as the Getty pedestals, would suggest his authorship.
Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) had premises at the 'Golden Spread Eagle', Long Acre, London, and was probably apprenticed to James Moore by 1719 – on 7 September 1719 he signed for money for ‘my master’ James Moore from the Duchess of Marlborough (BIFMO, Accessed 20 July 2022). As Moore had succeeded his former master John Gumley, so Goodison succeeded Moore in royal service in 1726-27, and is referenced in accounts initially in 1729, followed by more regularly from 1737, whence he received payments from the Great Wardrobe along with Kent and others (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1600-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 351-352). Goodison’s accounts submitted indicate the great range of work he was able to undertake – from cabinetwork to carving and from candlesticks to mirrors, in a variety of different materials. During his career Goodison supplied furniture not only to the Royal Palaces, but also to illustrious private houses such as Holkham, Althorp, Longford Castle, Deene Park and Alnwick Castle, as well as to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough for her London residence and to John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, for his London residence.
Whilst the attribution of many ‘Kentian’ pedestals is firm in many cases, research by Treve Rosoman on the Chatsworth pedestals showed that they were supplied by John Boson to Lady Burlington at Chiswick in 1735, together with other furniture discussed by Rosoman (‘The Original Interior Decoration of Chiswick House’, Burlington Magazine, October 1985, pp. 663-677). Accounts at Chatsworth show that Lady Burlington paid John Boson £43.4s for the stands, circa 1735.
The Getty pedestals, with the neoclassical treatment of their Palladian 'therm' pilaster form, display a shift in design to a more architectural form away from the figural ‘herm’ pedestals at Hampton Court, Chatsworth and Longford Castle, which featured busts – putti, male and female – supporting stepped platforms. These stands reflect the influence of contemporary architectural designs such as one for a related chimneypiece jamb published by T. Lightoler in The Modern Builders Assistant in 1742, pl. 65.
A closely related set of six pedestals are at Aske Hall, Yorkshire (A. Coleridge, ‘Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas’, Apollo, September 1967, p. 222, fig. 12). Like the Getty pair, the tops are supported by carved foliate ‘vases’ above waisted square paneled socles above tapering paneled columns and with foliate-carved S-scroll feet, the only significant difference being that the ribbon-tied trailing foliage adorning three sides of the column issues from a foliate roundel as opposed to a ring-bearing lion’s mask and the lack of carving to the base of the column. It is probable that the Getty pedestals would have originally had marble tops, as the Aske pedestals do to this day.
The stands can be related to a group of Kentian mask-headed pedestals dating from the 1730s and 1740s of which there are examples at Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth and Longford Castle (R. Edwards & P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 159, fig. 1, 2 & 4) as well as in the Victoria and Albert Museum [W47-1962] and a pair supplied to William, 2nd Earl of Harrington (d. 1799) for Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire (sold most recently from the di Portanova Collection, Christie’s, New York, 20 October 2000, lot 92, $143,500).This group has traditionally been attributed to Benjamin Goodison – and indeed Goodison's delivery of the pair of George II Ionic-capped 'nymph' pedestals to Hampton Court under the direction of William Kent in 1732-1733 (ibid, fig. 1), which display the same foliate-carved spreading S-scroll base as the Getty pedestals, would suggest his authorship.
Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) had premises at the 'Golden Spread Eagle', Long Acre, London, and was probably apprenticed to James Moore by 1719 – on 7 September 1719 he signed for money for ‘my master’ James Moore from the Duchess of Marlborough (BIFMO, Accessed 20 July 2022). As Moore had succeeded his former master John Gumley, so Goodison succeeded Moore in royal service in 1726-27, and is referenced in accounts initially in 1729, followed by more regularly from 1737, whence he received payments from the Great Wardrobe along with Kent and others (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1600-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 351-352). Goodison’s accounts submitted indicate the great range of work he was able to undertake – from cabinetwork to carving and from candlesticks to mirrors, in a variety of different materials. During his career Goodison supplied furniture not only to the Royal Palaces, but also to illustrious private houses such as Holkham, Althorp, Longford Castle, Deene Park and Alnwick Castle, as well as to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough for her London residence and to John, 2nd Duke of Montagu, for his London residence.
Whilst the attribution of many ‘Kentian’ pedestals is firm in many cases, research by Treve Rosoman on the Chatsworth pedestals showed that they were supplied by John Boson to Lady Burlington at Chiswick in 1735, together with other furniture discussed by Rosoman (‘The Original Interior Decoration of Chiswick House’, Burlington Magazine, October 1985, pp. 663-677). Accounts at Chatsworth show that Lady Burlington paid John Boson £43.4s for the stands, circa 1735.
The Getty pedestals, with the neoclassical treatment of their Palladian 'therm' pilaster form, display a shift in design to a more architectural form away from the figural ‘herm’ pedestals at Hampton Court, Chatsworth and Longford Castle, which featured busts – putti, male and female – supporting stepped platforms. These stands reflect the influence of contemporary architectural designs such as one for a related chimneypiece jamb published by T. Lightoler in The Modern Builders Assistant in 1742, pl. 65.
A closely related set of six pedestals are at Aske Hall, Yorkshire (A. Coleridge, ‘Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas’, Apollo, September 1967, p. 222, fig. 12). Like the Getty pair, the tops are supported by carved foliate ‘vases’ above waisted square paneled socles above tapering paneled columns and with foliate-carved S-scroll feet, the only significant difference being that the ribbon-tied trailing foliage adorning three sides of the column issues from a foliate roundel as opposed to a ring-bearing lion’s mask and the lack of carving to the base of the column. It is probable that the Getty pedestals would have originally had marble tops, as the Aske pedestals do to this day.