Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: The Museum Year 2011
The Year
Acquisitions
Art of Europe: July 2009–June 2011
Tripod stand
Little round monopodium or stand
about 1802
[Role] Thomas Hope
Height and Diameter: 63.2 x 30.2 cm (24 7/8 x 11 7/8 in.)
Mahogany
Classification: Furniture
Culture: English
Accession number: 2010.1040
Location: Susan Morse Hilles Gallery (Regency)
Description: This monopodium, or tripod stand, whose top, through means of a slider and a screw, can be raised or lowered, corresponds precisely to a drawing and description in Thomas Hope’s Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1807), which introduced the term “interior decoration” into the English language. Regency designers took inspiration from archeological sources from Greece and Rome, striving to reproduce antique forms of decoration and incorporating symbols, such as monopodia, from the ancient world.
Provenance/Ownership History: Possibly by descent from Thomas Hope to his grandson, Lord Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope (b. 1866 - d. 1941), Dorking, Surrey; September 12-19, 1917, possibly in the Lord Pelham Clinton Hope sale, Humbert and Flint, London, lot 921. 2005, Galerie Steinitz, Paris. 2010, Horace Wood Brock, New York; 2010, gift of Horace Wood Brock to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 26, 2011).
Gift of Horace Wood Brock