THE DERBY MARBLE WORKS
The Derby Marble Works began producing decorative ornaments using local marbles and blue-john in the mid-18th century. In 1832 the Works were owned by Joseph Hall (1785-1848) who had followed in the footsteps of his grandfather who had been the master mason and carver at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, and responsible for all of the elaborately carved stone, alabaster, and woodwork in the house (J. Steer, 'Derbyshire Miscellany', The Local History Bulletin of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society, 2003, vol. 16, part 6, p. 160). On 4 July 1832 Joseph Hall placed an advertisement for his business in the Derby Mercury providing fascinating insight into his products:
... J.H. having erected a STEAM ENGINE and extensive machinery, gives him great advantage, and enables him to manufacture the beautiful Derbyshire, and other Spars and Marbles, into the most approved VASES, COLUMNS, CANDELABRA, &c. correctly copied from the Antique. Also TIMESTANDS, INKSTANDS, CANDLESTICKS, and a variety of useful and ornamental articles. MINIATURES of those interesting Antiquities, Pompey's Pillar, Cleopatra's Needles, and other Egyptian Obelisks formed in exact proportions, and the hieroglyphics correctly copied from the originals... (Ibid., p. 161).
JOSEPH AND THOMAS HALL
After Joseph Hall's death the Marble Works were inherited by his sons, Joseph and Thomas Hall, who were as well-known as their predecessors and were popular among local tourists and are also recorded as exporting to the Continent, India, and the United States (The Art Journal, September 1850, p. 7).
The designs on these candlesticks are taken directly from the plates of Cupid and Psyche and Hercules and Lichas from Henry Moses' The Works of Antonio Canova, in Sculpture and Modelling, Engraved in Outline..., published 1824-28. In the Great Exhibition of 1851 the brothers exhibited black marble pieces decorated similarly to the current lot, the closest comparison of which is 'etched' with a classical figure of Night, indicating the Hall brothers continued the tradition of reproducing classical designs in their works
A description of the Hall brothers' method of decoration is given in The Art Journal of September 1850:
...A method of ornamenting black marble has recently been discovered, which is by extracting the colouring matter of the marble (bitumen) without injuring its surface; and by extracting the colour to a greater or lesser degree, different shades are produced, giving it the effect of an engraving; indeed the method pursued is nearly the same as in aquatint engraving'.
Of the very fine and very black marble used, from the Duke of Devonshire's quarries at Ashford-­in-the-Water, the Journal comments, 'This is the best black marble that is known... it receives a deeper black according to the amount of polish it obtains', and goes on to explain that due to 'white veins, shades and vents' this marble can only be used for small objects.
A pair of black marble campana-form vases with this type of decoration were previously tentatively associated with the work of George Bullock. This was on account of their presence in a house furnished by Bullock, and the similarities of the foliate decoration to some of Bullock's designs. It now seems likely that those vases were also made by the Hall brothers.