Of limewood with original green-painted and faux porphyry decoration. Each surmounted by a circular gadrooned top above a shaped stem with reeded central section and anthemion decoration raised on four winged female figures and a pylon shaped faux porphyry base decorated to each side with a wreath and crossed poles with acorn finials, the whole raised on four bold paw feet and a square faux porphyry plinth with canted corners. These exceptionally sophisticated pair of torcheres are identical to a single example in the Victoria and Albert Museum. They originally formed part of the collection of the Earl of Lascelles, at the great Yorkshire mansion, Harewood House, built between 1759 and 1771 by a combination of the architects John Carr and Robert Adam.

English. Circa 1815. The design of the present cabinets, called 'dwarf cabinets' by contemporaries, exemplifies the influence of French taste on English design during the Regency period. Such cabinets drew on the Empire formula of a shallow cupboard with paired doors flanked by columns or pilasters. However, the typically stylised carved lotus capitals and the intensity of the design of the extremely fine gilt brass elements to the doors mark the cabinets out as distinctly English. The most striking feature of these cabinets is their beautifully figured maple surface. Known as Bird’s-eye maple because of its delicate mottling, evident in the present pieces, the wood was imported from Canada, where timbers were obtained from New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.