H. Blairman & Sons Ltd

Designed by Thomas Jeckyll (1827-81)

Manufactured by Robbins & Co. (active before 1875-at least 1921)

Cast brass

50.5 x 37 x 12 cm

English (Dudley), designed 1875

Design registration mark for 2 October 1875 struck twice on the back, once on the rim and the other on the central panel (see below).  The design is to be found in the National Archive, Kew:BT 43/39 no.294900 (see below)

[…]; Christie’s (New York), 19 December 2013; H. Blairman & Sons; private collection

Susan Soros and Catherine Arbuthnott, Thomas Jeckyll: Architect and Designer 1827-1881, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2003, pp.234-235, and figs. 6-92 & 6-93.  The example illustrated, with a darker patina, was at the time in the collection of Andrew Macintosh Patrick

Private collection

An identical sconce is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum: M.9-2013.

The notes below are transcribed from the V&A website.

Jeckyll’s design for this sconce was registered at the Patent Office on October 2, 1875 and is in the National Archives held by the Public Record Office. The name Robbins appears on the drawing (BT 43/39 no.294900). The design shows two alternative versions for the border. In the lower right hand section, the design is a simple scalloped edge if the design was to be executed in wrought iron. The upper right hand section shows a more intricate cloud and shell design if the design was produced in cast metal which the few surviving examples invariably are. The central oval panel was decorated with a pair of swallows and plum tree branches in relief. It has been suggested by Soros and Arbuthnot (loc. cit)  that the design was adapted from a series of colour woodcuts by the Japanese print maker, Nakayama Sugakudo.

In the V&A, Far Eastern collections, there are 22 woodblock prints from a series `Pictures from life of the 48 varieties of birds (Seisha shiju hachitaka gwajo), signed by Sugakudo published by Koyeldo in 1859 (E.116-137-1955). Two of these prints, Nightingale and Plum blossoms (E.116-1955) and Migratory Swallow and Nonesuch (E.128-1955) are the immediate sources of Jeckyll’s design. He has traced the plum blossom branches but eliminated the nightingale from the first and traced the swallows from the second and overlaid them on to the plum blossom design. To this he has added a stylised sunburst pattern to the centre. These elements are in reverse to those in the woodblock prints. Jeckyll probably traced the designs with a soft pencil or charcoal stick, and then made an impression on a blank sheet of paper by turning his tracings face downwards, pressing the two sheets of paper together and working up the final design with pen and ink. Jeckyll may well have possessed his own copies of these prints which he probably would have bought from Liberty’s. Alternatively, he may have borrowed them from his associate, James McNeil Whistler.