Footnotes

Upper Epergne Section

Provenance
J. S. M. Scott, London - the Birkenhead Collection
With the Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London W1S 2JT - purchased by the present vendor, The John Scott Collection 'Modern English' Design from the 1860's and 1870's, 11th June 2014 (4, Epergne fragment - INV 34276).
With the Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL (loan) prior to March 2021

Exhibited
Paris International Exhibition, 1878.
The Fine Art Society, The John Scott Collection 'Modern English' Design from the 1860's and 1870's, June-July 2014 (4).

Literature
The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition 1878, p.115.
The Fine Art Society, The John Scott Collection 'Modern English' Design from the 1860's and 1870', Exhibition Catalogue 2014 (4), p.16.

Centrepiece Base

Provenance
Private UK collection.
With RIBA, 66 Portland Pl, London W1B 1AD (on loan) prior to August 2014.
Purchased (private treaty sale) by the present vendor in conjunction with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd (advisors), Kensington Church Street, London W8 7NL, 15th September 2014 (INV 6491).
With the Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL (loan) prior to March 2021.

Exhibited
Paris International Exhibition, 1878.

Literature
The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition 1878, p.115.
M. Whiteway & C. Gere, Nineteenth-Century Design; From Pugin to Mackintosh, London 1993, p.175.

At the time of his death in 1881, the esteemed architect and designer William Burges was widely thought to be the most influential and gifted figure of his generation. An unstable and extravagant eccentric, he was a brilliant pre-Raphaelite architect who pursued his artistic goals via an idealised vision of the past. In his work he sought to escape from both modern industrialisation and the prevalent Neoclassical architectural style of the establishment and re-affirm the architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Standing within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echo his predecessor Pugin and his contemporaries of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, whilst heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement.
In a short but illustrious career he won his first major commission for Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork in 1863 when he was thirty five working with a long established team of craftsmen and artisans he produced a small but architecturally varied output including castles, houses, churches, a warehouse, a university and a school, although many of his designs were either never executed or subsequently demolished.
Of Burges's works, his most notable are Cardiff Castle, constructed between 1866 and 1928, and Castell Coch constructed between 1872 and 1891, both of which were built for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute.
Aside from his architecture, Burges also designed metalwork, sculpture, jewellery, furniture and stained glass. He also gave a series of lectures called 'Art Applied to Industry' to the Society of Arts in 1864, illustrating the breadth of his artistic interests.
Burges was a notable designer of Gothic-inspired metalwork and jewellery and who is now seen as the successor to architect and designer A.W.N. Pugin in refining and developing the Gothic revival style.
In his book, William Burges and the High Victorian, the author and art critic Prof. J Mordaunt Crook states that "Burges's genius as a designer is expressed to perfection in his jewellery and metalwork'. He produced a 'dazzling' array of religious artefacts including candlesticks, chalices, crosses either as individual commissions or as part of the decorative schemes for buildings. Burges also had an early and close connection to the Ecclesiological Society taking on the role of superintendent of the Society's church plate scheme in 1864.
However, his most notable metalworks were created for himself, often from the proceeds of the winning of an architectural competition. Examples include his Elephant Inkstand and a pair of jewelled decanters, paid for by the fees for the plans of the Crimea Memorial Church and his series of lectures, 'Art Applied to Industry', and the Cat Cup, created in commemoration of the Law Courts competition. He also designed more utilitarian articles including silverware featuring various fantastical creatures including mermaids and spiders and a set of knives and forks specifically designed for his own residence, The Tower House, with the handles carved as types of meat and vegetables. His own large collection of historic armour was subsequently bequeathed to the British Museum upon his death.
Hart, Son, Peard & Co. (1842–1913) were British architectural metalworkers based
in London and Birmingham most associated with the production of ecclesiastical works.
Founded in 1842 in Wych St, off The Strand, by bible-trained ironmonger Joseph Hart who was also a member of the Ecclesiological Society, they became artistic metalworkers specialising in ecclesiastical manufactures after merging with Birmingham-based Peard & Jackson in 1866–67. Also skilled in sculpture and with an agent in Paris, Henri Collet, the firm made Burges designs by J.P. Seddon, B.J. Talbert, Alfred Waterhouse and William Butterfield. and importantly had a long-standing relationship producing silver and other metalwares for Burges. By 1870, Hart was overseeing the Birmingham works, Jackson responsible for the finances, and Peard in charge of the factory in Drury Lane, the showroom in Regent St and the production of the firm's catalogue.
The company were represented at all the major European exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century winning many medals at: London (1851 and 1862); Paris (1855, 1867 and 1878), Dublin (1855 and 1865) and Philadelphia (1876). The firm finally closed in 1913.
The flamboyant French Gothic style epergne and its architectural base which comprise the present lot formerly constituted the major portion of a fantastical centrepiece manufactured by Hart, Son, Peard & Co. sometime around 1875 or thereafter.
Exemplifying the high Gothic style which still fascinated Burges and who was at this time involved in the Medieval style decoration of Castle Coch for Lord Bute, and his own Tower House in Kensington, the materials used were a catalogue of the metalworking techniques that Burges utilised in his commissions - filigree work, geometric-patterned champleve enamel and the use of semi-precious stones - all executed in an eclectic fantastical vein with architectural overtones.
Exhibited at the Exposition Universelle, held in Paris from May to November 1878 which celebrated the recovery of France after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), the centrepiece was illustrated in The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition 1878 with a descriptive caption as follows:
'Perhaps the Exhibition does not contain a more remarkable example of Art manufacture than the latter, which is early French Gothic in style, and is composed of more than two thousand separate pieces of metal, chiefly soldered together, electro-gilt, with oxidised panels, & c. It is enriched by ivory carvings and enamelled panels – subjects apropos to the dining-table – and shields. The objects to be placed under the canopies in the base will be determined by the public or private use for which it may be adopted. Taken altogether, the work is one of the highest value.'
In the Fine Art Society's 2014 catalogue entry for the upper epergne section, the respected collector John Scott made his own observations on the piece:

'Having purchased this from Michael Whiteway as probably by William Burges, the next important step was obtaining proof. Happily, there was a magnificent engraving of the entire centrepiece in the Art Journal Catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition. '

John Scott continues that an inconclusive essay written on the centrepiece by the eminent scholar and author of Burges's biography, Prof. J. Mordaunt Crook FBA 'only added to the mystique that surrounded Burges...' but that 'I feel confident it's Billy's (sic) work...'

Similarly in Michael Whiteway & Charlotte Gere's book, Nineteenth-Century Design; From Pugin to Mackintosh from 1993, the authors attribute the base of the centrepiece as being possibly after a design by William Burgess, further commenting:

'In the 1870s Hart, Son & Peard made an ambitious piece in the style of Burges, an epergne base in the flamboyant Gothic style (PL. 219); it may never have found a purchaser and survives only in truncated form'.