Lot 81: Gold, Mineral and Painted Flower Study by William Tolliday

Gold, Mineral and Painted Flower Study by William Tolliday
Circa 1975Retailed by Garrard & Co., London, EnglandA mixed media composition of great imagination and delicacy comprising "plants" rendered from 18K yellow and white gold depicting the following: brambles, nettles, willow herb, ragged robin, grass and fern. The plant life sprouts from a craggy cluster of minerals including chrysocolla and quartz, accented with a gold spider's web which has "ensnared" a small diamond. Mounted onto a canvas backing painted with a landscape under a midnight sky. Signed William Tolliday. Framed with plush velvet border. Height 16 x 14 x 1 1/2 in (41 x 36 x 4cm)

Provenance: Sotheby's, London, Olympia, April 19, 2007, Sale 7650, lot 170.William TollidayBorn in 1915, William Tolliday worked his entire career at Garrard & Co., London, the New Bond Street firm designated as England's crown jeweler up until 2007. In the late 1960s he began creating his signature fairytale castles of gold, perched on mineral specimens that he said were inspired by the Houses of Parliament and the buildings of Venice. It was from his workshop above Garrard's that Tolliday produced a very limited number of gold and mineral flower studies and architectural reliefs so which he also painted the canvas backgrounds.