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Pair of candlesticks

Ref: 30
  • Designer

    The design perhaps by A.E. Street (1855-1938)

  • Detail

    Ebony and silver-plated metal

    Height: 62 cm

    English, circa 1900

  • Provenance

    Perhaps St. Margaret’s Convent, East Grinstead; […]; Sir Edward Maufe; acquired from the 1977 sale of chattels from Maufe’s collection at Shepherds Hill, Buxted; Clive and Jane Wainwright

  • Exhibited

    The Clive and Jane Wainwright Collection, H. Blairman & Sons, 21 June – 14 July 2023, no. 30

  • Literature

    Clive and Jane Wainwright Collection, London: H. Blairman & Sons, 2023, no. 30

  • Collection

    Private collection

  • Notes

    In the catalogue for the Wainwright exhibition, above, we noted that ‘Although apparently undocumented, the design and workmanship of these candlesticks suggest the work of the Artificers’ Guild (1901-38)’. We are grateful to Caroline Newton, Assistant Curator (Decorative Arts) Lotherton Hall, for reminding us that we had help facilitate Lotherton Hall in the acquisition of an identical pair of candlesticks from the estate of Bridget Cooper, through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.

    Donald and Bridget Cooper had acquired their candlesticks from Sotheby’s Belgravia, 19 April 1978, lot 53A.

    The museum’s note records the provenance, now added to our pair, together with an (unlikely) attribution to G.E. Street (1824-81), who had designed the main convent building in 1865.

    However, we now suggest that, perhaps, the design might be attributed to his son A.E. Street, who was engaged at the convent towards the end of the nineteenth century, before his retirement in 1903.  We originally dated the candlesticks to circa 192o, but now suggest a date some twenty years earlier.

    For a history of St Margaret’s Convent see Kathryn Ferry, The Old Convent East Grinstead, 2021.