Lyon & Turnbull
Lot 1
a pair of Egyptianesque bronze and ormolu Colza oil lamps probably designed by William Bullock the urn surmounts with berried finials above shaped reservoirs with satyr-masks and addorsed serpents beneath a leaf cast shade holder, on stiff leaf columns with spreading fluted socles and triform platforms with winged monopaedic chimera corner ornaments, raised on volute cast paw feet 26cm wide, 50cm high, 18cm deep note: William Bullock (fl. 1795- 1840) Traveller and naturalist and the elder brother of the celebrated cabinetmaker George Bullock (d.1818), Bullock was strongly influenced by Thomas Hope's 'Household Furniture and Interior Decoration' , published in 1807. Bullock owned the Museum of Natural Curiosities in Liverpool which, after 1812, was re-housed at the 'Egyptian Hall' in London's Piccadilly. Bullock was a curator as well as a dealer in rare objets d'art. In 1822, he travelled to Mexico where he bought a silver mine and collected pre-Colombian artefacts which are now held at the British Museum. Bullock's last great dream, however, was to create an idealistic community called 'Hygeia' in the United States. 'Hygeia' was to be an Egyptian style city, much in the manner of Aswan or Luxor but designed to grace the banks of the Ohio River, rather than the Nile. Unfortunately, however, the dream was never realised; the city was never built and Bullock later died in relative poverty.
