Lot 431: THOMAS JECKYLL

Two-armed sconce, model no. 3 Manufactured by Robbins & Co., Dudley, UK. Reverse cast with design registry mark for November 1, 1881 and NO 3.

19 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 4 7/8 in. (50.2 x 24.1 x 12.4 cm)

Cast and chased brass.

1881

Susan Weber Soros and Catherine Arbuthnott, Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer, 1827-1881, New Haven, 2003, p. 235 for a similar model

Characterized by an interpretation of Japanese motifs and aesthetic ideals, Japonism (in Britain termed the Anglo-Japanese style) emerged as a strand of the English Aesthetic movement at the International Exhibition of 1862 in London. Acknowledged in his day as one of the style’s leading proponents, Thomas Jeckyll helped it to gain international recognition at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the 1873 Vienna International Exhibition and the 1875 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The present lot dates to the height of the style’s international popularity. While Jeckyll had previously worked with the Barnard, Bishop & Barnards foundry in Norwich on both his exhibition works and commercially produced models, his declining health in the final years of his life necessitated that his brother, Henry Jeckyll (1838-1917), a founder at Robbin’s & Company in Dudley, take over his affairs. These circumstances are to attribute to the firm’s production of the present lot, the patent for which is recorded in the Public Registry Office in Kew. A similar example of an oval-formed brass wall applique of the same manufacture, with the central relief depicting two swallows amidst plum-blossomed branches, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Phillips would like to thank Dr. Susan Weber for her assistance cataloguing this lot.