PAIR OF GEORGE IV PATINATED BRONZE COLZA OIL TABLE LAMPS IN THE FORM OF ANTIQUE RHYTONS

PAIR OF GEORGE IV PATINATED BRONZE COLZA OIL TABLE LAMPS IN THE FORM OF ANTIQUE RHYTONS, circa 1825, in the manner of examples by Thomas Messenger & Sons, Birmingham; each with the reservoir within a cornucopia issuing amongst foliage from behind a dolphin's head, the burners issuing from the mouths, with later waisted glass shades, atop stepped rectangular bases with lacquered wood socles, 38cm high, 32cm wide overall Note: Although unsigned, these distinctive lamps are related to a pair stamped 'Messenger' in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. A further unstamped ormolu pair once owned by the Duke of Newcastle is held at the Leeds City Art Galleries at Temple Newsam. Both of these comparable pairs have boars' heads rather than dolphins but as a type are very similar. Thomas Messenger & Sons advertised as 'Manufacturers of Chandeliers, Tripods and Lamps of every description in bronze and ormolu', and the rhyton features on the firm's trade-card of the 1830s (see C. Gilbert and A Wells-Cole, The Fashionable Fire Place, 1660-1840, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 1985, pp.145 and 140, fig. 95) Cf Christie's South Kensington, 'Interiors, Style & Spirit', 23rd September 2008, lot 94 for a comparable pair