The back of the Queen Anne silver-gilt seal cup
On the cover:
A Queen Anne Silver-Gilt Seal Cup
London, 1707, unmarked Height: 4 ½"; Weight: 14 oz. 2 dwt.
Engraved on one side with the Royal Arms, and on the other, within the garter motto and beneath a ducal coronet, with the crest of Holles. Inscribed below the Royal Arms: THE LAST PRIVEY SEALE, WCH BELONG’D TO ENGLAND BEFORE THE UNION OF GREAT BRITAINE WCH TOOK PLACE THE FIRST OF MAY 1707.
The Privy Seal was the seal affixed to the King or Queen’s personal documents as a guarantee of their authenticity. It was a sizable chunk of silver, engraved with the arms of the Monarch. The person in
charge of the Privy Seal has been known since the time of Henry VIII as the Lord Privy Seal. John Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1662 1711), held this office from 1705 until 1711. It was during his term of office that England and Scotland were unified as Great Britain. When the union took place, he had the actual Privy Seal made into an object on which an image of the seal was engraved. This had been a custom for all seal holders (the Great Seal, the Seal of the Exchequer, the Prince of Wales’s seal) since the Middle Ages. Surviving examples of these objects are extremely rare, but the most famous are the Bacon cups (three of them) made from the Great Seal of Mary I for Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the
Walpole Salver made by Paul de Lamerie from the second Exchequer Seal of George I.
Provenance: The Dukes of Newcastle, by descent till sold (with various other superb pieces of old silver) on 7 July 1921, lot 69, at Christie’s.
Literature: Corporation Plate of England and Wales: Catalogue of the Exhibits, Goldsmith’s Hall, 1952, no. 102, p. 32. (This catalog notes that a second similar cup that is hallmarked 1707 belongs to the Duke of Portland and is illustrated in Jackson, fig. 295. That cup remains at Welbeck Abbey, but it is not, in fact, hallmarked.)
VOLUME XXVIII
S. J. Shrubsole
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Photography by Steven Tucker
This year saw the conclusion of two of the longest-running deals in which this firm has ever been involved. The first was the purchase and sale of a piece of mid-seventeenth-century communion silver which my stepfather first saw in 1993 with Martin Norton of S. J. Phillips, and which we then pursued with single-minded passion and unrelenting focus (i.e. an annual phone call to the owner) for twenty-nine years. The second was the sale, to the Metropolitan Museum, of an exceptional set of three George II tea caddies. These we had sold in 1956, to the Lipton Tea Company. We kept tabs on them, mostly by going out to clean them every few years, until about ten years ago, when I took a photo of the coat of arms on the caddies, and handed it over to my
main man for Armorial Research, Jim McConnaughy. Jim figured out that the arms were those of Sir John Dashwood of Kirtlington Park, in Oxfordshire. The Kirtlington dining room is one of the treasures of the Metropolitan Museum, so when I mentioned to Ellenor Alcorn (then curator of silver at the Met and now head Curator of Decorative Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago) that I knew of a masterpiece by Lamerie that was made for Dashwood — the wheels started to turn. I now know that if any wheel turns more slowly than the Wheel of Justice it is the Wheel of Museum Acquisitions. Nevertheless, there they are, for all to see, one of the great rococo masterpieces of English silver, somewhat as they might have been in the eighteenth century, a few feet from the
dining room of the house they were made for.
Now, lest I risk catching my garment on the Wheel of Fortune, and it bowls this round knave down the hill of heaven as low as to the fiends, I just want to add: I’m not bragging, I’m just saying, and of course I’m saying it so that everyone who reads this might be interested to see some of the other things “which I desired, and got” in the last year. The quote is from Donne’s “The Good Morrow”, in which that comical lothario praises his current love while simultaneously boasting of past conquests. You see the relevance, I’m sure, and will do, even more, as you turn through the following pages.
— Tim MartinA Henr y VIII Master Spoon
London, 1530 by William Simpson
Length: 7 1 8 "; Weight: 1 oz. 14 dwt. Provenance: The Cookson Collection Sotheby and Co., 6 March 1952, lot 31 C.G. Rupert Collection
The Staniforth Collection
Literature: Illustrated in G.E.P How, Silver Spoons and Pre-Elizabethan Hall-Marks on English Plate, V. 2, Chap. III, Sec. II, Pl. 29. How describes it as “one of the most famous of all master spoons.”
C.G. Rupert, Apostle Spoons, illustrated as the frontispiece
A Collection of Early English Spoons of the 15th, 16th & 17th Century formed by The Rev. Thos. Staniforth, 1898, published by Crichton Bros. N. Gask, Old Silver Spoons of England, pp. 74–75, pl. X
A Provincial Maiden Head Spoon
(Left)
c. 1520; Maker’s Mark: S in reverse Length: 6 ¼"; Weight: 1 oz. 1 dwt. The marks on this fine spoon are illustrated in G. E. P. How, Silver Spoons and Pre-Elizabethan HallMarks on English Plate, 1953, vol. 3, Chap. VI, pl. 2 of Section IX. He suggests a date of 1510 30.
Provenance: The Chichester Collection
A Wrythen Knop Spoon (Right)
London, 1556; Maker’s Mark: a cross with a pellet Length: 6 ½"; Weight: 1 oz. 8 dwt. Provenance: A Private Collection Bonham’s, London, 2 July 2008, lot 85 The Quernmore Collection
This lovely spoon was discovered by one Dennis Price, while gardening, in Chester in 1997. The spoon was in two pieces: centuries of exposure to dirt and rainwater had eaten away the base metals in the solder, so the joint where the finial is attached to the stem had come undone. It’s a small miracle that the wrythen-knop finial (about the size of a pea and extremely rare) wasn’t lost in the dirt. The find was written up in The Finial Aug Sept 1998 page 37. For an illustration of the maker’s mark, see Commander G.E.P How and Jane Penrice, English and Scottish Silver Spoons and pre-Elizabethan Hall-Marks on English Plate, V. III, p. 37, cycle IV.
A
Pair of Henry VIII Apostle Spoons, St. Peter and St. James the Greater London, 1545 by William Simpson Length: 7 3 8 "; Weight: 3 oz. 16 dwt. Provenance: A Private Collection Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, A Private Collection of Early Silver Spoons, 25 October 2000, lot 33
As close to a perfect pair of spoons as one could find from this period, slightly heavier than the splendid Morgan Apostles of 1544, which we originally bought when sold by Morgan’s descendants in 1982, and which were most recently sold at Christie’s in 2014.
An Elizabeth I Silver-Gilt Mounted Tigerware Jug
London, 1559
Maker’s Mark: SK Height: 8 ¼"
The date 1560, original to the piece, is engraved on either side of the handle.
A James I Silver-Gilt Cup
London, 1606 by Anthony Bennett
Height: 14 ¼"; Weight: 27 oz. 4 dwt. This is one of the largest such cups in existence.
A Commonwealth Wine Cup
London, 1654 by Gilbert Shepherd Height: 3 ¼"; Weight: 1 oz. 17 dwt. Literature: M. Clayton, Christie’s Pictorial History of English and American Silver, Oxford, 1985, p. 52, fig. 5
A Commonwealth Wine Cup
London, 1652; Maker’s Mark: a bird Height: 3 3 4 "; Weight: 2 oz. 10 dwt. Provenance: Sotheby’s, New York, 16 April 1996, lot 325 Charles L. Poor, Washington, D.C. Sotheby’s, New York, 26 October 2005
A Charles II Porringer & Stand
London, 1661 by John Winterton
Diameter of tazza: 15 3 4 "
Weight: 75 oz. 12 dwt.
Engraved under base: THE GIFT OF PHILIP, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, TO BOWYER ADDERLEY ESQ, HIS GODSON
The arms and crests — which postdate the cup by some 45 years — are for Bowyer Adderley of Hams Hall, Warwickshire. An unusual instance of a decidedly out-of-fashion object being
given as a Christening present: one may imagine the Earl of Chesterfield, by this date a rich, aging roué, rummaging around in the cupboards looking for something, anything, to pass along to yet another bl—dy Godchild.
Provenance: Given to Bowyer Adderley (1705 1747) of Hams Hall, by his Godfather Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield (1634 1714)
By descent to his great grandson,
Charles Adderley, 1st Baron Norton (1814 1905)
Descent to his son 2nd Baron Norton (1846 1926)
Christie’s, London, 8 June 1909, lot 57, Property of a Nobleman (Lord Norton), sold to Garrard (£1,015)
Christie’s, New York, 10 April 2018, lot 224, Property of a distinguished New England Collector
A Small James II Chinoiserie Porringer
London, 1683; Maker’s Mark: IC Height: 2"; Weight: 1 oz. 18 dwt.
A Small James II Chinoiserie Porringer
London, 1685
Maker’s Mark: HT crowned Height: 2 7⁄ 8 "; Weight: 4 oz. Provenance: Christie’s, London, 16 November 2010, lot 399
A William & Mary Chinoiserie Porringer
London, 1690 by John Duck Height: 3 ½"; Weight: 10 oz. 10 dwt. Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 9 October 1969, lot 236
The Ortiz-Patiño Collection, English 17th-Century Chinoiserie Silver; Sotheby’s, New York, 21 May 1992, lot 145
A Pair of Charles II Chinoiserie Scent Flasks
London, 1680
Maker’s Mark: D in script, possibly for Isaac Dighton
Height: 6 ½"; Weight: 27 oz. 14 dwt.
Provenance: The Collection of the late
Sir John Prestige; Sotheby’s, London, 17 April 1989, lot 307
The Ortiz-Patiño Collection: English 17th-Century Chinoiserie Silver, Sotheby’s, New York, 21 May 1992, lot 153
A Charles II Porringer & Cover
London, 1680; Maker’s Mark: WS Height: 8"; Weight: 38 oz. This is a fairly common type of porringer, but in terms of condition, color, patina, and weight, it is about the best example you’re likely to find.
Provenance: S J. Phillips
A Pair of Charles II Dressing Table Boxes
London, 1671 by Robert Smythier
Diameter: 4 ¾"; Weight: 25 oz. 2 dwt. With cast and applied openwork monogram E C.
These lovely and sophisticated boxes were once accompanied by a mirror and a pincushion — remnants of a now dispersed (or destroyed) toilet service.
Michael Clayton, in his definitive Dictionary, lists a toilet service of 1675 as one of the earliest, so this, of 1671, may in fact have been the earliest of them all. The unusual treatment of the monogram — bolted on as openwork — also occurs on a pair of wall sconces of the same period at Burghley House. Smythier was one of the great silversmiths of this period, and would have been likely to get a commission for a toilet service earlier than many of his contemporaries.
A William III Spout Cup
London, 1697 by William Andrews Height: 3 ¼"; Weight: 5 oz.
Provenance: The John Hyman Collection
Literature: John A. Hyman, Silver at Colonial Williamsburg: Drinking Vessels, no. 44
A Charles II Spout Cup
London, c. 1675; Maker’s Mark: mullets G crowned below Height: 2 5 8 "; Weight: 5 oz. 12 dwt. Engraved with the arms of Elizabeth, widow of Sir James Phelps of Barrington, County Somerset.
Provenance: The Hudson Bay Company, 1985
The Hyman Collection Literature: John A. Hyman, Silver at Williamsburg: Drinking Vessels, no. 46, pp. 36 37
Spout cups were used to feed infants, and for such concoctions as whipped syllabub, which consisted of thick cream, Sack (a fortified white wine), orange or lemon juice, and sugar. The curdled cream separated and floated to the top where it could be eaten with a spoon. The liquid below was drunk through the spout. The ultimate eco-friendly straw.
A Charles II Tankard
London, 1671 by Osmond Strickland Height: 6 ¾"; Weight: 27 oz. 10 dwt. The arms are probably those of Carey.
Provenance: Bulgari, Rome, 28 May 1962
Private Collector, Brazil
The maker’s mark has been tentatively ascribed by David Mitchell to Osmond Strickland who worked from 1660 and died after 1697. Curiously, this tankard
bears another maker’s mark as well: that of the well-known silversmith Francis Leake. He was the brother of Ralph Leake, and started working in 1655. Whether Leake supplied parts or whole objects to Strickland, or whether Strickland re-used a marked handle from a damaged tankard by Leake, is one of those angels-on-a-pinhead-questions we pinheads squander time on.
Now that we’ve got the reign of Charles III, the reign of Charles II seems like yesterday — just one Charles ago. Here are three Royalist tokens — dating from the years after the Restoration, and celebrating the King’s narrow escape from Cromwell’s soldiers shortly after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester, in 1651. He famously spent an entire day hiding in an oak tree on the grounds of Boscobel House in Shropshire. He reported hearing the voices of the Parliamentarian soldiers as they rode about in the forest hunting for him.
A Royalist Trefid Spoon
Exeter, c. 1670
probably by Samuel Cawley
A 17th-Century Snuff Box
Set with a piece of the Boscobel Oak and an applied engraved scene of Charles hiding in the oak, flanked by an angel presenting him with three crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland while Parliamentarian horsemen search for him below. Beneath this is a wreath inscribed SACRA JOVI QUERCUS (Oak sacred to Jupiter).
A 17th-Century Pendant
The back with a piece of the Boscobel oak set with a crown presented by an arm appearing from the clouds, the rim engraved VIRTUT EX ME FORTUNAM EX ALIJS.
A Charles II Porringer & Cover
London, 1674; Maker’s Mark: TM Height: 6 5 8 "; Weight: 41 oz. 6 dwt.
Provenance: Richard Cushing Paine, Boston
Important Early English Silver from the collection of Richard C. Paine, Parke-
Bernet Galleries, 15 April 1950, lot 54
The Paine collection was a very fine group, including the marvelous lobed cup and cover by Richard Blackwell (the hound-sejant maker) now in the Gans Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
A Pair of William & Mary Candlesticks
London, 1693 by Edward Gibson
Height: 6"; Weight: 26 oz.
An Unusually Large Pair of William III Candlesticks
London, 1696
Height: 8"; Weight: 52 oz. 18 dwt. The crest is that of Grenville, for Richard Temple-Nugent-BrydgesChandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776–1839) or his son Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-ChandosGrenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797 1861).
Exhibited: Queen Charlotte’s Loan Exhibition of Old Silver, 1 May 8 June 1929, no. 413, pl. LIII
Provenance: Richard Temple-NugentBrydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776 1839)
Richard Plantagenet Temple-NugentBrydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797 1861), both of Stowe, Buckinghamshire The Stowe Sale, Christie’s, 15 August
1848, and for 37 days, probably part of lot 407
P.D. Pauncefort-Duncombe, Esq. Thomas Hugh Cobb (1863 1944), solicitor and collector, Number 9, The Manor, Davies Street, Mayfair The Executors of the late Thomas Hugh Cobb Esq.; Sotheby’s, London, 19 October 1944, lot 26
S. J. Phillips Ltd.
A George I Silver-Gilt Casket
London, 1725 by John Edwards
Length: 10 3 8 "; Weight: 69 oz. 5 dwt.
This fine casket was originally part of a larger toilet service — a lady’s toilette (spelled here à la française both because the English often spelt it that way and because we try to preserve the highminded decorum our readers expect), a lady’s toilette, again, being the time spent by a lady, surrounded by her entourage — ladies-in-waiting, etc. —
getting dolled up for whatever events of the day would require what Hamlet would call “paint an inch thick.” A full toilet service included a mirror, candlesticks, and a large array of boxes, caskets, and flasks.
The arms are those of Nightingale impaling Shirley for Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale (1695 1752) of Manhead, co. Devon and Enfield, co. Middlesex, and his wife Elizabeth (1704 1731),
the eldest daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers (1677 1729), whom he married in 1725.
Provenance: The Gift of Anne Gascoigne to Elizabeth Shirley (1704 1731), on the occasion of her marriage to Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale MP (1695 1752) in 1725
To her son, Washington Gascoigne Nightingale (1727–1754)
To his sister Elizabeth Gascoigne Nightingale (1731 1755), wife of Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne (d. 1800)
By descent to Ernest, 7th Earl of Lisburne (1892 1965), of Trawsgoed in Cardiganshire
The Earl of Lisburne Collection; Sotheby’s, London, 27 June 1963, lot 43 (part)
Pair of Queen Anne Capstan Salts
London, 1704 by William Fleming Height: 2 ¼"; Weight: 3 oz.
A Queen Anne Sugar Bowl & Cover
London, 1707 by William Fleming Diameter: 4 ½"; Weight: 6 oz.
A William III Monteith Bowl
London, 1698 by Thomas Parr
Diameter: 11 ¼"; Weight: 58 oz. The arms are those of Thomas impaling Wharton.
It is something of a new interest of mine: objects which, rather than being melted down and refashioned, were deemed of significant enough interest, or perhaps just usefulness, that they
escaped the melting pot to live another day, another generation, often changing hands and thus requiring another coat of arms. “Later arms” my stepfather used to bark, dispatching some poor trifle with a sneer of cold command. But it bears pointing out that some of the most magnificent objects in English silver have later arms — the Sutherland wine cistern; the Charles I inkstand illus-
trated on page 28; Lamerie’s ewer and basin for Admiral Anson. These items have later arms because they were, and are, great works of art — too good to refashion. Here, where the attractive rococo swirl of the cartouche (circa 1750) sits so well within the swirls of the bowl, and where the bowl is in otherwise pristine condition, it’s hard to complain.
A Rare 18th-Century SilverMounted Famille Rose Covered Ewer
c. 1735 Height: 8"
The mounts are probably French or Belgian.
A Pair of Chinese Blanc de Chine Porcelain Silver-Gilt Mounted Candlesticks
London, c. 1695 by Francis Garthorne Height: 8 ¾"
Provenance: Harry Oppenheimer
A porcelain taper holder similar to those mounted here, dated c. 1675 1725, is illustrated in Blanc de Chine: the Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien, by P. J. Donnelly, London, 1969, illustration C and page 125.
A German 18th-Century Silver-Mounted Serpentine
Marble Spirit Barrel Regensburg, c. 1720 by Johan Caspar Betz
Length: 10 ¾"
An exceptionally large and rare piece of silver-mounted serpentine. The only comparable example we know of is in the Green Vaults in Dresden.
A Pair of George I Footed Salvers
London 1720 by Paul de Lamerie Diameter: 6 ¼"; Weight: 25 oz. 1 dwt.
The arms are those of Treby, for Sir George Treby, one of Lamerie’s greatest patrons. He is of particular interest to collectors, scholars, and silver enthusiasts generally, because he was the owner of two of the greatest pieces to have survived from Lamerie’s workshop: the Treby punch bowl, and the Treby toilet service. Both pieces are at the Ashmolean as part of the magnificent Farrer bequest. These tazze were originally a set of six, and when they were split up one pair was sold — likely by us or by S.J. Phillips — to our irascible client Irwin Untermyer. In the catalog
of the Untermyer collection, Yvonne Hackenbroch writes (in highly Teutonic style):
Next in date is a pair of salvers on foot, made in 1720 (no. 172), engraved with the arms of one of Lamerie’s greatest patrons, the Rt. Hon. George Treby, M.P. The original invoice, dated April 25, 1721, survives. These salvers are therefore earlier than Lamerie’s famous toilet service in the Ashmolean Museum, ordered by Treby as a wedding present for his wife, Charity Hele, in 1724. Lamerie’s unfailing sense of proportion and his capacity for organization are manifest in these early pieces and confirm the range of this master, who, later in life, excelled in the virtuosity of elaborate creations.
A George I Cup & Cover
London, 1718 by Paul de Lamerie
Height: 10 5 8 "; Weight: 74 oz. The arms are those of Porter. A beautiful piece of early Lamerie.
Provenance: Christie’s, New York, 5 October 1983, lot 234
A George II Two-Handled Cup
London, 1730 by John White Height: 6 5 8 "; Weight: 37 oz. 18 dwt.
The arms are for Sir John Hynde Cotton, 3rd Baronet, (c. 1686 1752) and his second wife Margaret.
Provenance: The Estate of Roland L. Taylor of Philadelphia, Christie’s, 27 Sept. 1978, lot 142 ($2,640)
The engraved strapwork on this cup is an unusual substitute for the more common applied strapwork. (An example by Lamerie can be seen on the previous page.) This engraving can be confidently attributed to Charles Gardner — an engraver closely associated with the silversmith John White. Gardner was so talented that the Goldsmiths’ Company
specified he should do all the engraving on a large order in the 1740s.
The Cotton papers survive in the Cambridgeshire Archives. This cup is listed in the 1737 inventory as “less cup” just after “large cup and cover,” which reassuringly implies that it has not lost its cover — it never had one.
I am grateful to Anthony Phillips and Harry Williams-Bulkeley of Christie’s in London for providing this and other information about the provenance of the cup. Their research into the family stemmed from their recent sale of the magnificent inkstand shown here.
One of the greatest items of English silver known, it was also owned by Sir John Cotton, and had the same arms as our cup.
A Pair of George II Sauce Boats
London, c. 1738 by Lewis Pantin
Length: 8 ½"; Weight: 49 oz. Engraved with the arms of John Harris Esq. of Hayne, Devonshire.
Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 15 May 2003, lot 92
Private Collection, England
Sotheby’s, London, 17 May 2022, lot 28
I know everyone who lived in the past was awful, but still I daydream about being an eighteenth-century Lord, bellowing for more claret, while at my feet mastiffs growl over veal chops on a priceless old rug. But a recent auction catalog of these sauceboats gave me pause: it contained, by way of illustra-
tion of the possible uses for these objects, the following recipe for a sauce:
Get some strong greavy, anchoves, shillot, nutmeg, & all spice. Set ym on ye fire together. Let ym stew a good while. Then strain it & draw a good deal of fresh butter, very thick, a glass of claret or white wine, ye body & pea [egg-sack] of a lobster, or body of a crab. Mix all together.
I dare you.
Curiously, the sauceboats have no date letter; instead they are struck with two different leopard’s heads, presumably a mistake by the person handling the punches. The second leopard’s head was in use in 1737 and 1738, narrowing their likely date of manufacture.
A Set of Four George III Candlesticks
London, 1764 by William Cafe Height: 10 ¾"; Weight: 89 oz.
A Pair of George II Irish Salvers
Dublin, c. 1745 by William Williamson Diameter: 6 1 8 ; Weight: 16 oz. 5 dwt.
A George III Epergne
London, 1778 by Thomas Pitts
Width: 21 ½"; Weight: 117 oz. 13 dwt. Provenance: S.J. Shrubsole, New York, 29 March 2000
For a very similar epergne, Thomas Pitts, London, 1777, see Robert Rowe, Adam Silver 1765 1795, London, 1965, p. 37B.
A Set of Eight George III Candlesticks
London, 1803 by Robert Garrard Height: 11"; Weight: 145 oz. 2 dwt. The crest is that of Cavendish for William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire. These once were part of a large set of at least 28 candlesticks, of which four were with us about fifteen years ago.
Provenance: Tessiers, Ltd., London
