A PAIR OF GEORGE III BLUE JOHN PATINATED AND GILT BRONZE ATHENIENNES ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS HOPE A rare pair of early 19th century patinated and English lacquer gilt bronze atheniennes supporting highly figured solid Derbyshire blue john cups, the flared rims with thumb moulded edges, polished inside and out to reveal the rich translucent crystalline figuring. Each cup supported on parcel gilt bases comprising of three panther monopedia chimeras around a central cabochon of blue john mounted into a bronze circular stylobate and elevated by a gilt ring on stepped slightly canted neo Egyptian square bases separated and supported on four gilt paw feet. Attributed to Thomas Hope (1769-1831) England, circa 1805-10 Height 12 inches Diameter 9 1/2 inches Dating from circa 1805-10, this magnificent pair of gilt and patinated bronze mounted blue john atheniennes incorporate designs by Thomas Hope (1769-1831) and feature bronze work attributed to Alexis Decaix (d. 1811). Hope was an influential patron of the arts, a great collector, connoisseur and a highly original designer of furniture and decorative objects who, as here, favoured the use of contrasting rare blue john and other coloured stone with bold classical ormolu mounts. As a leading arbiter of taste in Regency England, Hope’s designs were widely disseminated through his influential publication Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, (1807), which illustrated and discussed many works of art that he had acquired and designed for his home in Duchess Street, London. A number of items from that publication conform in style to the present works, for instance plate. 32, showing Hope’s “Tripod table, in mahogany and gold”, features three very similar caryatid chimeras (a goat and a dragon’s tail which Bellerophon, a Corinthian prince, was challenged to fight). Each chimera stands in the same position as here and has the same distinctive S-shaped upper body emerging from acanthus leaves on a single leg above a massive paw foot; furthermore, Hope’s three beasts share the same facial expressions, while their heads are likewise crowned by an outward splayed block that supports a circular top. Plate 32 “Tripod table, in mahogany and gold” A pair of carved mahogany tables, designed by Hope of circa 1805, likewise featuring the same three outward facing chimeras, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (David Watkin and Philip Hewat-Jaboor, Thomas Hope, Regency Designer, 2008, pp. 390-1, no. 75). Another similar table, housed in Hope’s Duchess Street residence, featured in his Household Furniture plate 15, where it was described as a “Tripod table, supported by chimeras”. Plate 15 “Tripod table, supported by chimeras” Link to the Victoria and Albert Museum Record J. Le Keux, after G. Cattermole Thomas Hope’s Picture Gallery at Duchess Street From Charles Molloy Westmacott, British Galleries of Paintings and Sculpture, 1824 A further comparable tripod table features in the left-hand foreground of Hope’s Picture Gallery at Duchess Street (Household Furniture, plate II) which also shows at centre a table “for portfolios of drawings and books of prints” with four very similar monopodiae chimeras. As here, the design for the aforementioned tripod supports is based on one of a number of Roman multi-coloured marble tripod tables that Hope himself owned such as one now in the Schroder Collection (ibid, pp. 326-7, no 45) which includes both antique and more recent seventeenth and eighteenth century elements and was typical of tables found in ancient Greek and Roman homes. Interestingly, a similar multi-coloured Roman table was later housed at Hope’s Surrey residence, The Deepdene, near Dorking, which he purchased in 1807, the year after he married the Irish beauty Louisa Beresford. The house and interiors were captured in a series of watercolours commissioned by John Britton, of which one by Penry Williams shows the multi- coloured marble table with its characteristic caryatid chimeras, in the circular conservatory leading to the library. (Watkin, op. cit, p. 460, plate 106.10). Penry Williams ‘Circular Conservatory’ The Deepdene The use of such one-legged mythical beasts was not particular to Hope, nor was the concept of arranging three together as a support for a luxury object for, as noted, the original inspiration for Hope’s design was based on antique prototypes, of which chimeras or other animals often featured as supports for bronze tripods found at the ancient ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum. As a man of eclectic tastes, Hope gained inspiration from varied sources to include the arts of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome as well as more recent designers and artists. Among them was Charles Heathcote Tatham, whose “Antique tripod of Alabaster” in the Vatican Museum, was illustrated in his Etchings ornamental architecture; drawn from the originals in Rome, and other parts of Italy, during the years 1794, 1795 and 1796. Charles Heathcote Tatham, Etching “Antique tripod of Alabaster” Vatican Another inspiration for the present animal supports may have been a design illustrated in Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus’s Recueil d’Antiquités Égyptiennes, Étrusques, Grecques et Romaines (1752), plate XCV, no. II, featuring a very similar caryatid chimera (Watkin, op. cit, p. 390, plate 75-1). Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus’s Recueil d’Antiquités Égyptiennes, Étrusques, Grecques et Romaines (1752), plate XCV, no. II, In this context, reference should also be made to the Italian eighteenth century printmaker, archaeologist, architect, and designer Giovanni Battista Piranesi. In 1769 Piranesi published his Diverse Maniere d’adornare i cammini ed ogni altra parte degli edifizi desunte dall’architettura Egizia, Etrusca, e Greca, showcasing imaginative designs for chimneypieces, clocks, vases, and even coaches. Among them was a design (plate 63) for a pier table supported by monopodiae winged chimeras, that was made for the Roman state apartments of a nephew of Pope Clement XIII and is known today by an example in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Pier Table, Minneapolis Institute of Art. Thomas Hope, Henry Bone enamel after Sir William Beechey At the time of his death in 1831, Thomas Hope was well-known as a patron of the arts, a widely travelled aesthete, author and interior designer, as well as an interested practitioner of natural philosophy. Hope was, in turn, a member of the Society of Antiquaries (1794); the Royal Institution (1799); the Society of Dilettanti (1800); the Royal Society (1804); The Royal Society of Arts (1804); and one of the founding members of the British Institution (1805). Originally from Amsterdam, Hope was born into a highly affluent family of merchant bankers. Following an extensive eight-year Grand Tour that took in numerous countries including Greece, Egypt, Italy and Turkey, Hope’s wealth allowed him to commission new works, purchase antiquities and to patronise many leading artists such as the sculptors John Flaxman, Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen. He eventually settled in London in 1795; four year later he purchased his palatial house in Duchess Street, designed by Robert Adam, where he set about remodelling the interiors to “appropriate a little repository for the reception of a small collection of antiquities, Grecian and others” as well as furniture, vases and other ornamental objects that he had himself designed and commissioned. The Duchess Street House purchased by Hope in 1795 - Only the facade is extant. It was during his Grand Tour that Hope developed a taste for rare antique marbles and semi-precious stones, which were so much part of Italian decoration and architecture. This in turn inspired Hope to design a number of works of art that featured gilt and patinated bronze mounted objects made of blue john. This very rare form of richly coloured fluorspar, known for its beautiful radiating crystalline structure, is only found at a site near Castleton in Derbyshire, England. While similar stones have been treasured since Roman times, blue john was only discovered in the early 1700s; however, its potential was not truly recognised until the second half of the century, largely owing to the entrepreneurial metal-worker Matthew Boulton and the renowned Neo-classical architect Robert Adam who respectively used it to great effect in creating decorative objects and architectural features. The richly coloured blue john on this pair of atheniennes originated from the Witch’s Miller’s vein in Treak Cliff Cavern near Castleton. Each blue John mine has characteristic figuring which can be pin- pointed to a specific mine. One can but only wonder at their creation since Blue John is not typically extracted in large crystal formations yet the diameter of each bowl measures 9.5 in / 24 cm, which makes them exceptional. Furthermore, since this rare mineral is so brittle, each shaped dish had to be painstakingly ground down on a water or steam powered lathe and finished with ray skin shagreen. As noted the finely cast bronzes are attributed to the bronzier Alexis Decaix, comparing in style to those adorning a pair of ormolu mounted Blue John vases designed by Hope, that once stood at Duchess Street and later at his Surrey residence The Deepdene. Parallels can also be made with a patinated copper vase with gilt bronze mounts, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, as well as the gilt bronze mounts on a sang de boeuf Chinese porcelain vase, both of which were after a design by Hope (respectively illus. in Watkin, op. cit, p. 382, no.