The canted triangular top with spreading triangular shaft carved overall with antique arabesques and centred by a relief profile medallion of Hermes supported on addorsed chimerae, on a woven guilloche-mounded base and paw feet, with canted triangular plinth
48 in. (122 cm.) high; 27 in. (69 cm.) wide

The Distillers Company, 20 St. James's Square, London, by 1938.

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Lot Essay

Delicately carved with motifs recalling the zenith of English neoclassical design, this pedestal was photographed in Robert Adam’s metropolitan masterpiece, 20 St. James's Square, London in 1938. Seen on the staircase landing of the house, the former London home of the Williams-Wynn family, the pedestal is shown supporting a Roman urn (lot 1 of this sale) some three years after the acquisition of the house by the Distillers Company in 1935.

The house had been designed by Robert Adam for the wealthy landowner and politician Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Bt. (1749-1789) in 1771-1775 in the purest neo-classical style and though there is no documentary evidence that the pedestal was in the house during the Williams-Wynn period (1775-1920), its carved motifs relate to a number of Adam drawings for the house and its interior decoration, currently preserved in the collection of the Sir John Soane Museum, London (SM Adam Volume 52/60). Two of these designs are shown below and relate directly to the griffins carved on the present lot, which combine elements from both designs. These similarities, as well as traces of a decorative scheme dating to the George III period underneath the current decoration, imply that the pedestal was designed by a hand familiar with Adam’s designs and the dominant neoclassical style of the time. A pair of candlestands currently preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.36A-1946) that were designed by Adam for the Eating Room of 20 St. James’s square bear stylistic and physical similarities to the current lot.

A pigment test conducted in March 2023 by Catherine Hassall of UCL on the current lot revealed traces of the George III decoration consisting of a coat of pale grey oil paint over a very thin layer of gesso dating to the George III period. The pedestal was subsequently cleaned and repainted at least once in a greyish oil paint before a new imitation wood decoration in the 19th century and finally our current decorative scheme.