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A large vase with two handles, after an Antique design, salvaged by Sir John Soane from the Screen in front of Carlton House
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A large vase with two handles, after an Antique design, salvaged by Sir John Soane from the Screen in front of Carlton House
Coade Stone
Museum number: MC25
On display: Monument Court
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
In his 1835 Description Soane wrote in the section on the Monument Court, 'The Vase on the east side of this court, copied from the outline of an Etruscan work, is in Coade's artificial stone, and was formerly placed over one of the Ionic columns of the Screen in the front of Carlton House. Those vases, of jelly-glasses, as the Committe of Taste of that day designated them, were so much ridiculed as to cause their speedy removal; adn the absurdity of a single row of columns to support an entablature without any meaning, produced the well-known pasquinade: Cave colonne, que fate quà? / Non sappiamo, in verità!'.
The ionic columns on which this vase once stood were salvaged when Carlton House was demolished and are now part of the porch of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
The vase is shown in a watercolour of c.1825, Volume 82_75, a capriccio of various items from Soane's collection.
The ionic columns on which this vase once stood were salvaged when Carlton House was demolished and are now part of the porch of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
The vase is shown in a watercolour of c.1825, Volume 82_75, a capriccio of various items from Soane's collection.
Literature
J. Soane, Description, 1835, p. 29.
Associated items
Vol 82/75, watercolour showing this item
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk