Details
Modeled as elephant's heads, with composite tusks
838 in. (21.3 cm.) high, 14 in. (35.5 cm.) wide
Provenance
Acquired from Mallett, London, 1991.
Brought to you by
Allison CoxHead of Sale, Associate Specialist
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Lot Essay

A related pair of elephant-form curtain pole finials was sold from the collection of the Hon. Charles Wynn, Nostell Priory, Yorkshire; Christie's, London, 6 July 1995, lot 19 (£13,800). The curtain-poles would have formed part of the refurbishment of Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, carried out by Thomas Ward of Frith Street for Charles Winn, née Williamson (d. 1874), following his marriage to Priscilla Strickland in 1819.
They reflect the early 19th-Century fashion illustrated in George Smith's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826. The elephant-head motif derived from antique candelabra and corresponds to an 'Antique cornice' pattern illustrated in James Arrowsmith's, Analysis of Drapery, 1819, pl X, fig. 1. Arrowsmith noted that such ends with their draperies 'may be used with effect in large Drawing Rooms, where light modern Cornices would not correspond with the other furniture, the heads may be of bronze, or burnished gold'.

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