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Pair of wall lights
Designed by: Thomas Hope (1769–1831)
English
about 1802
Medium/Technique
Bronzed and gilt limewood, later brass chains
Dimensions
Overall: 34.9 x 75.2 cm (13 3/4 x 29 5/8 in.)
Overall (with chains): 141 x 75.2 cm (55 1/2 x 29 5/8 in.)
Overall (with chains): 141 x 75.2 cm (55 1/2 x 29 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by Horace Wood Brock and Rowland Burdon-Muller Fund, Jane Marsland and Judith A. Marsland Fund, Helen B. Sweeney Fund, Mary L. Smith Fund, Ernest Kahn Fund, Arthur Mason Knapp Fund, and funds by exchange from a Gift of Elizabeth and Gordon Morrill
Accession Number2011.1636.1-2
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsDecorative arts
This pair of wall lights was designed by innovative Regency designer and collector Thomas Hope. The lights correspond to a drawing in the 1807 publication of his own designs entitled Household Furniture and Interior Decoration and they likely hung in the Egyptian Room in Hope’s London residence on Duchess Street. Hope believed that long horizontal lines at equal distances from each other render an interior more grand and create a magnificent diffusion of light.
Provenance1807, with Thomas Hope (b. 1770 - d. 1831), London. By 1931, Gerald Wellesley (b. 1885- d. 1972), 7th Duke of Wellington, Tichfield Terrace, London; by descent within the family; sold by the descendants of Gerald Wellesley to H. Blairman and Sons, London; sold by Blairman to Philip Hewat-Jaboor, St. Lawrence, Jersey, Channel Islands; 2011, sold by Philip Hewat-Jaboor, through Keywest Management, Ltd., to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 21, 2011)