Lot 358: WORKSHOP OF GEORGE WICKES (1698-1761)

DESIGN FOR A SILVER CHANDELIER, FOR HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK Red chalk over pencil, on two sheets of watermarked laid paper; inscribed upper right: In the corronett [sic] will be the Balance of Louster / which for want of Room is exsprest [sic] Here 553 by 778 mm

George Wickes recorded in his ledger on the 20th August 1743, that he supplied Sir Robert Walpole with ‘two large drawings of a lustre for the house at Houghton.’1 Alongside acting as Britain’s first Prime Minister, Walpole dispensed a great deal of energy and money on the decoration of his family seat; Houghton Hall in Norfolk. As well as amassing an important collection of paintings, he employed many leading goldsmiths of his generation. George Wickes was amongst these and his ledger shows that he regularly received commissions between 1737 and 1745.2 It appears that this particular chandelier was never cast, however the second of Wickes' drawings survives at Houghton, in the collection of the Marquess of Cholmondely.3 Many of the details on the chandelier are loaded with heraldic devices that connect it directly to Walpole. Crowned with an Earl’s coronet, the object’s right hand side is also decorated with an image of the Walpole family crest; ‘a Saracen’s head, ducally crowned, with a long cap turned forward and charged with a Catherine wheel’.4 1. Second Wickes Ledger, Victoria and Albert Museum, Archive of Art and Design, (1995/7/2) 2. L. Dukelskaya, J. Harris, A. Moore, T. Morel, Houghton Revisited, London 2013, p. 247 3. L. Dukelskaya, J. Harris, A. Moore, T. Morel, op. cit., London 2013, p. 247, fig. 88 4. Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armoury of England, Ireland and Wales, London 1884, p. 1069