2. Bonomi (Joseph, 1739-1808 ) Design of a Lamp-stand for the Stair-case at Mrs Montagu’s in Portman Square, pen and watercolour, 460 x 270mm., 18 x 10½in., scale at foot, titled as above and signed “Joseph Bonomi Architect 9th of February 1782”, verso with the small ink stamp of the RIBA (where the drawing was on deposit) endorsed in pencil “Returned to owner”.
est. £1500 – £2000
Provenance: By descent from Joseph Bonomi to the present owner. A group of drawings by Bonomi from this collection was sold in these rooms, 1 June 2000, lots 80-87.
An elegant design with ram’s-head finials and acanthus leaves decorating the foot, very much in the Adam style. One of the first of several commissions from the wealthy bluestocking hostess Elizabeth Montagu, undertaken the year after Bonomi left the Adam brothers’ office. He was engaged in the decoration of the house built 1777-1782 by James “Athenian” Stuart.
The present drawing is illustrated in Peter Meadows, Joseph Bonomi Architect 1739-1808, An Exhibition of Drawings from Private Collections, London, RIBA, 1988, p.2.