Apter-Fredericks

A Pair of George III Blue John Cassolettes by Matthew Boulton

Height: 13" 34cm

Each has an ovoid blue john urn mounted with ormolu rosettes and swags. The chased domed lid is decorated with overlapping leaves and, when reversed, forms a candle holder. The ormolu leaf-cup socle has a swirling base and stands on a moulded square block edged with Greek key pattern decoration. The cylindrical plinth is hung with swags of husks suspended from lions' masks. The whole rests on a circular triple-stepped base.

English, Circa 1770

The Collection of Eric Moller
Thronecombe Park, Surrey.

This model of cassolette is known as the Cleopatra Vase and is believed to have been especially favoured by Boulton's clients. A pair of cassolettes of the same model is illustrated in Nicholas Goodison's Ormolu: The Work of Matthew Boulton,1974, pls. 109-110.

Matthew Boulton (working 1761-1782) was a scientist and inventor who founded a manufactory in Soho, Birmingham in 1761. He designed and produced clocks and decorative objects of a quality never previously achieved in this country. In 1771 a large auction was held at Christie and Ansell's in order to sell his products and the records of this sale provide us with much of the detailed information we have about his work.

Blue john is a coloured crystalline gemstone found only in a single mine at Castleton in Derbyshire. It has a translucent appearance with colours ranging from dark purple and violet to light brown and honey yellow. It was the only English material that could rival the porphyry, jasper and malachite so much admired in Italy on the Grand Tour.

It appears that blue john was first used by Samuel Watson at Chatsworth House between 1690 and 1715. In about 1760 Robert Hall of Castleton, having perfected the art of polishing blue john using a heat process and pine resin, became the first to manufacture items made from blue john on a commercial scale. Blue john soon became world famous and was widely exported to France where the spar was known as bleu jaune and was mounted in ormolu and from where many of the vases and other ornaments were re-exported to England. Robert Adam used blue john and between 1762 and 1775 blue john vases, candelabra and cassolettes, mounted in ormolu, were produced by Matthew Boulton at his Soho works near Birmingham. Indeed Queen Catherine the Great purchased blue john vases, clocks and an obelisk from Matthew Boulton between 1772 and 1774.