candle stand from the eating room, 20 st. james’s square, london, 1771–74

Piranesi’s use of antique ornament profoundly influenced the work Robert Adam, who designed this candle stand and its pair around 1777 for the London house of his client, Sir Watkin Williams Wynne. A synthesis of an antique tripod with a Roman altar, the candle stand would have supported a silver-branched candelabrum.

Robert Adam
(Scottish, 1728–1792)
candle stand from the eating room, 20 st. james’s square, london, 1771–74
Pen and brown ink on off-white laid paper
1220 x 572 mm (48 1⁄16 x 22 1⁄2in.)
Victoria and Albert Museum