IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS CHIPPENDALE, CIRCA 1775-80

The ram's head masks and swags on these brackets relate to those seen on the bracket-form bases of a pair of pier glasses almost certainly made by Thomas Chippendale for the White Drawing Room at Harewood House [HHTF:1997.281a, b]. There are several examples of torchères by Chippendale featuring similar ram's head masks on tripod monopodia supports, most notably a set of four made for the Great Drawing Room at Burton Constable (J. Goodison, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale Junior, London, 2017, p. 370, fig. 196) and a pair also in the Getty Collection, offered as lot 50 in the Evening Sale, which additionally share similar icicles around the top. Monopodia supports are a unique feature rarely present on wall brackets, but also appear on a related pair made by Ince and Mayhew for the Earl of Caledon (H. Roberts, 'Precise and Exact in the Minutest Things of Taste and Decoration: The Earl of Kerry's Patronage of Ince & Mayhew', Furniture History Society, vol. XLIX, 2013).