Sunflower andirons

Thomas Jeckyll

c. 1876 (design registered 11 April 1876)

Brass, with iron support

provenance: Dr W. H. Roche, gift of Margaret Clarke (the artist’s wife); The Fine Art Society, 1988

Source: Masterpieces from the John Scott Collection.

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‘Jeckyll is one of my favourite artists. I have six of his fireplaces around my home. He was strongly inspired by Japanese designs and adapted his metal products to suit British manufactured goods.’ — John Scott

Commentary

Thomas Jeckyll’s association with the iron founders Barnard, Bishop & Barnard, based in his native Norwich, lasted eighteen years. His greatest feat for the company was the Japanese Pavilion for the 1876 Philadelphia International Exhibition, which travelled to Paris in 1878, before being installed in a Norwich park where it remained until 1944. The Sunflower Andirons, alongside fire grates incorporating motifs from the Pavilion, were part of the display at both Philadelphia and Paris.

Most significantly, the Sunflower Andirons featured in the notorious Peacock Room, designed for F.R. Leyland’s house by Jeckyll and overpainted by James McNeill Whistler. The andirons can also be seen in old photographs of David L. Einstein’s library and in the hall of the Long Island House of Samuel P. Hinckley (King). This pair is the only known whose front section is made entirely of brass. The Barnard, Bishop & Barnard catalogue from 1877 (no.880) shows the design available in iron or brass.

Bibliography

Gere, Charlotte, & Michael Whiteway. Nineteenth-Century Design: from Pugin to Mackintosh. London 1993, p.160

King, D.J. Artistic Houses. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1883-84.

Masterpieces from the John Scott Collection. London: The Fine Art Society, No. 23.

Merrill, inda. The Peacock Room: a Cultural Biography. New Haven and London, 1998. pp. 188–190, 203, 254–255.

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Last modified 24 May 2014