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Metalwork Design

1770
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A drawing of a silver soup tureen. Profile. Shown less than full size.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Pencil, pen and ink and grey wash on a yellow washed ground on laid paper.
Brief description
A design for a silver soup tureen by John Yenn, after Sir William Chambers, c. 1770
Physical description
A drawing of a silver soup tureen. Profile. Shown less than full size.
Dimensions
  • Height: 224mm
  • Width: 318mm
Style
Object history
A design for a silver soup tureen. The tureen, only half of which is shown in detail, is shown on a yellow background. Two of its feet are hoofed feet which terminate in a bucranium surmounted by a scallop shell. The other two have hoofed feet but these support female harpies whose wings are continued back to the body of the tureen. These figures, which act as handles, are derived from a drawing by Polidoro da Caravaggio that Chambers owned and had engraved in his treaties on Civil Architecture of 1759 and 1791. The four feet are joined by a band of scrolling foliage that runs around the body of the tureen. Above this is a band ornamented with a row of scallop shells. The lid has a band of leaf ornament at its rim, and is surmounted by a pair of addorsed griffins. On the verso is an incomplete sketch in pencil of a gateway. This drawing appears to be a copy of a rapid sketch by Chambers, but presented on a yellow ground with a ruled border. Bought together with 72 other drawings from Major H. Bateman via J. Starkie Gardner on the 29th November 1910, for £ 37-0-0.

Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London. Chambers also designed furniture and silver. The silver is usually linked to clients for whom he was also designing architectural schemes. The designs for silver are all in the hand of the architect John Yenn, who was a pupil of Chambers, for whom he became a leading draughtsman, working for him from 1764 until the late 1770s, when he began to practice on his own account.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic references
  • ‘The silver designs of Sir William Chambers: a resumé and recent discoveries’, The Silver Society Journal, Vol. 7, 1995, pp. 335-341. ‘Sir William Chambers and John Yenn; designs for silver’, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 128, No. 994, January 1986, pp. 31-35, fig 42. ‘Silver, Ormolu and ceramics ‘ in John Harris and Michael Snodin (eds), Sir William Chambers , Architect to George III, 1996, pp. 149-162, fig 219. ‘Sir William Chambers; Catalogues of Architectural Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum’ Michael Snodin (ed), 1996, cat 854.
Collection
Accession number
E.4989-1910

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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