Object Details
Object Essay
During the baroque era, sconces crowded the walls of state bedrooms in France, England, and Holland.1See two designs for state bedchambers by Daniel Marot, reprinted in Reiner Baarsen et al., Courts and Colonies (New York: Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1988), figs. 154 and 155. As social patterns changed during the 18th century and separate rooms were created for eating, wall sconces began to appear in dining rooms as well. The British architect and designer Robert Adam (1728–1792) incorporated wall sconces into many of his designs for neoclassical interiors published in 1773 and 1779.2Robert and James Adam, The Works in Architecture, 2 vols. (London: 1773 and 1779). With one, two, or more candle arms, pairs of sconces balanced chimney or pier glasses, either as an integral part of the furniture itself or in combination with the architecture of the room.
These sconces are excellent examples of the delicacy and refinement of Adamesque design.3For six similar examples of neoclassical sconces, see Cescinsky, 209. The acanthus scroll and rosette, doubling the curve of the candle arm, is a motif that Adam used repeatedly in ceiling, wall, fireplace, and furniture designs. It is as characteristic an ornament in the neoclassical style as the husk, swag, urn, and vase. The classical Roman eagle with outstretched wings is a decorative crowning device often employed during the Adam period in place of the rococo phoenix or ho-ho bird. The small plinth supported by acanthus leaves is another popular neoclassical motif. Throughout the 18th century, pictures, mirrors, and sconces were hung from colorful and decorative ribbons with bows and tassels. Here, the gilded forms satisfy the same function.
The New York lawyer and collector Andrew Varick Stout owned these sconces in the 20th century. He was both a lender to and sponsor of the 1929 Girl Scouts Loan Exhibition at the American Art Association’s galleries in New York City, and his sconces were placed in one of the two Federal dining rooms re-created at the exhibition. They hung over Henry Francis du Pont’s New York sideboard, now at Winterthur, and flanked Charles Willson Peale’s double portrait of Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming, now at the National Gallery of Art.4Illustrated in Girl Scouts, no. 730; see also Cooper 1980, frontispiece and fig. 9. As part of the exhibition, one of the largest and most extraordinary displays of American decorative arts in the 20th century, they were among a select group of objects that inspired a whole generation of collectors.
Gilbert T. Vincent
Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.