Christopher Hartop
George III Hanover
Norfolk Summer:
P.G. Wodehouse
The Classical Ideal:
English Silver, 1760?1840
Exhibition to benefit
Sir John Soane’s Museum
Dinner Service
Making The Go-Between
and the Silver Cow Creamer
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The Classical Ideal: English Silver, 1760?1840 Loan exhibition to benefit Sir John Soane’s Museum curated by Christopher Hartop
at Koopman Rare Art |
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| This catalogue brings together a wealth
of items in the neo-classical style. Tying in with the first ever exhibition to be devoted to English neo-classical silver, the book
features important works from the British Museum, Lloyd’s of London, Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museum of Wales, the
National Trust, Norwich Castle Museum, Nottingham Castle Museum, the Royal Collection, Sir John Soane’s Museum and the Victoria
and Albert Museum, as well as from historic houses such as Harewood House, Yorkshire, Holkham Hall, Norfolk, and Temple Newsam, Leeds.
Many of the items borrowed from private collections have never before been published. For the first time Robert Adam’s original
designs for a silver dinner service made for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn in the 1770s, loaned by Sir John Soane’s Museum, can be
viewed alongside the silver objects themselves, now in museums and private collections around the world. All proceeds from the sale of the catalogue will go to the Adam Drawings Project at Sir John Soane’s Museum. The museum has over 9,000 drawings by Robert Adam and his brothers, of which some 200 are designs for silver. The project will ultimately see all of these drawings accessible on line.
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| The second half of the eighteenth century
saw an enthusiastic revival of the use of shapes and decoration from Greek and Roman architecture in the design of furniture, ceramics and
silver. A reaction against the curving outlines and elaborate floral decoration of the rococo, neo-classicism was promoted as a return to
the ideal proportions and balance of the ancient world. Ironically, however, it was also an evocation of lost civilizations and sowed the
seeds of the romanticism of the succeeding century. The chief proponents of this new style were members of the emerging profession of architecture such as Sir William Chambers (1723?1796), architect to King George III, James Wyatt (1746?1813), James ?Athenian? Stuart (1713?1788) and especially Robert Adam (1728?1792). All of them designed silver as well, and their contribution to the elegant forms and simple decoration of domestic silver of the period is assessed in this book, the first to be devoted to English neo-classical silver for over forty years.
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The part played by industrialization in
the development of the style is also examined, as is the increasingly important role of opulent retailers such as Wakelin & Tayler, Thomas
Heming, Joseph Creswell, Jeffries & Jones, and Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Rundell?s, with their
own design studios and workshops staffed by such well-known names as Digby Scott (c. 1750?1816), Benjamin Smith (1764?after 1818) and Paul
Storr (1771?1844), were at the forefront of the adoption of a new imperial style based no longer on classical architecture but on classical
sculpture.
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This site was produced by John Adamson | |