On the cover, above, and on pages 36–37:
The Arkwright Stirrup Cups: an Exceptionally Rare Set of Twelve Stirrup Cups
London, 1869/93 by Hunt & Roskell
Height of nine large cups: 5 1/4"
Height of three small cups: 4 1/4"
Weight: 175 oz.
Amaze your friends and confound your enemies with this unique set of silver stirrup cups. Superlatives abound: these are the only known set of twelve nineteenth-century English stirrup cups; they are the only heads of cattle known; and, unless you’re playing a drinking game, they are the only stirrup cups that you can use at table — because even though you won’t want to, you can put them down, as shown in the photo above.
The cups were originally made for John Hungerford Arkwright, a great-grandson of Sir Richard Arkwright, the famous industrialist and “father of the factory.” John Hungerford Arkwright was born at Hampton Court Castle (in Herefordshire — not the Royal one). He attended Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, before inheriting Hampton Court at age 25. In the course of a long career in politics, his two passions were foxhunting — he was for many years Master of the North Hereford Hunt — and raising Herefords. Arkwright’s herd was one of the finest in England, and a huge number of American and Australian Herefords are descendants. Of the twelve cups (nine large and three small) nine are engraved with the name of the bull or cow represented (they are all actual portraits), as well as its prizes at various agricultural fairs around England.
XXX
S. J. Shrubsole
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Here we are, in our 113th year, sending out our catalog of fine English and American silver. My stepfather, with “small Latin and less Greek” but with a robust connaissance de Franglais, always rightly insisted it was “la crème de la crème.” Enjoy.
— Tim Martin
A Henry VIII Apostle Spoon, St. James the Greater London, 1538 by William
Length: 7 1/8"; Weight: 1 oz. 19 dwt.
A very fine St. James — with his cockle hat on his back, and his “staff of faith to walk upon,” as Raleigh puts it.
These spoons are among the earliest items we have in stock right now. The diamond point is in beautiful condition and shows signs of having at some point been buried. The maidenhead is as rare a spoon as one can find.
An English Diamond Point Spoon (Left)
C. 1460, unmarked Length: 5 3/4 "; Weight: 13 dwt.
Literature: Timothy Schroder, English Silver Before the Civil War: The David Little Collection, pp. 56–7, 119, no. 2
Provenance: With Spink & Son, London, 1969
Alastair Dickenson Ltd., London, 2015
The David Little Collection
A Provincial English Maidenhead Spoon (Right)
C. 1520; Maker’s Mark: S in reverse Length: 6 1/4"; Weight: 1 oz. 1 dwt.
The marks on this piece are illustrated in G. E. P. How, Silver Spoons and Pre-Elizabethan Hall-Marks on English Plate, 1953, vol. 3, Chapter VI, plate 2 of Section IX. He suggests a date of 1510–30.
Provenance: The Chichester Collection
A James I Wine Cup
London, 1604 by F. Terry
Height: 6 7/8"; Weight: 6 oz. 17 dwt.
This cup is one of the earliest we have had of this form, which came into fashion at the very end of the Elizabethan period and lasted till around 1620. This example, like the diamond point spoon opposite, must have been buried at some time — it too has pitting to the surface. It was sold at Christie’s by one R.R. Whitaker in 1974, and again at Sotheby’s in 1989, when it was bought in partnership by Asprey and Spink.
It has beautiful proportions and has survived in exceptional condition with faint traces of gilding to the inside of the bowl and the rim of the foot.
A Charles I Wine Cup
London, 1630 by Walter Furler
Height: 6 1/4"; Weight: 7 oz. 1 dwt.
An early wine cup of the Charles I period, this example has nearly perfect marks and a highly unusual tripleknopped stem instead of the usual baluster stem.
Literature: Timothy Schroder, English Silver Before The Civil War: The David Little Collection, pp. 42–3, p. 155, no. 25
Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 15 December 1966, lot 185, illustrated as the frontispiece to the catalog.
Alastair Dickenson Ltd., London, 2013
The David Little Collection
A Pair of Silver-Mounted Chinese Blue & White
Porcelain Pilgrim Flasks
London, c. 1630 by Stephen Wood
Height: 12 1/4"
Weight: one with scratchweight w: 7 oz: 3/4 : 2 dwt:, the other with scratchweight w: 8: oz: 3 dwt:
These flasks are two of the largest silvermounted items to survive from the James I period. The maker’s mark is
attributed to Stephen Wood, by whom other mounted pieces are known.
Provenance: Partridge Fine Arts, London, sold to S.J. Phillips, London, to Anne and Gordon Getty, 1986
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, lot 126
A
Commonwealth Porringer
London, 1658 by Henry Noyes Width across handles: 7 ½"
Weight: 12 oz. 4 dwt.
Two Charles I Newark Besieged Ninepence
Newark, 1645/6
Height: 1 ½" & 1 3/8"; Weight: 5 dwt. We are not coin dealers, but we could not resist these two fascinating coins struck by the Royalists during the Siege of Newark. Newark siege money, as it is called, bears the King’s crown, the denomination, and the words obs newark — OBS being short for obsidium, Latin for siege. But since the coins were cut from objects of wrought silver (flagons, dishes, tankards, etc.), some of them bear hallmarks from the original objects — which of course we find really, really cool. The coin on the right is clearly struck with the lion passant and the leopard’s head crowned, the coin on the left bears the date letter for 1628.
Provenance of the 1645 example:
E. W. Wheeler, Sotheby’s, London, 12 March 1930, lot 466
A. Thellusson, Sotheby’s, London, 19 October 1931, lot 249
Capt. R. D. Wills, Glendining, London, 6 December 1938, lot 569
Alderman H. Hird, Glendining, London, 6 March 1974, lot 261
Provenance of the 1646 example: Alderman H. Hird, Glendining, London, 6 March 1974, lot 266
A Set of Three Commonwealth Spoons
London, 1652 by Anthony Ficketts Length: 6"; Weight: 5 oz. 12 dwt.
These spoons are a mystery. They are variants of the rare hoof-end spoons found in Holland, England, and America. They date to 1652, in the Puritan Interregnum, and they have an unusually complex monogram on the finial. The little pictures below break down, as best we can, the possible letters included in the monogram, but as of now even your most dedicated Scrabbler has been unable to get a totally convincing, ironclad word or phrase out of them.
We won’t prejudice anyone by saying anything. Submissions welcome.
The marked spoon (and possibly the others) belonged to noted spoon collector J. H. Walter.
Literature: Charles Jackson, Illustrated History of English Plate, vol. 2, p. 515
Provenance: J. H. Walter
Private Collection, England
At right, the monogrammed finial of one of the spoons; below, tracings showing the various letters comprising the monogram.
A Charles II Porringer & Cover
London, 1674; Maker’s Mark: CM
Width across handles: 7 7/8"
Weight: 22 oz. 19 dwt.
In a nineteenth-century fitted wood traveling case with brass plaque engraved Du Cane Family Plate, Porringer and cover, London 1674.
This is one of the few objects we have
ever had which is recorded in William Chaffers’s groundbreaking 1883 book Gilda Aurifabrorum: A History of English Goldsmiths and Plateworkers. It is described as a “two-handled cup and cover belonging to Lady Du Cane.” The same owner appears next to entries for a 1676 “large tankard” and seven further pieces. The large tankard
came on the market about twenty years ago housed in a nearly identical carrying case.
Literature: William Chaffers, Gilda Aurifabrorum, 1883, p.122
Provenance: Christie’s, London, 27 November 1975, lot 236
A Rare Charles II Tazza
C. 1675, unmarked
Diameter: 9 ½"; Weight: 11 oz. 10 dwt. The arms are those of Stanhope for Philip Stanhope (1673–1726), second son of the Second Earl of Chesterfield. His older brother having died in 1703, Philip became the Third Earl in 1714, at which time the arms on this piece were updated with the addition of the Earl’s coronet. The fourth Earl is famous for Letters to His Son on the Art of
Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman. The letters, according to Samuel Johnson, teach “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master”.
Probably originally part of a toilet service, this fine tazza bears the dense floral chasing associated with the later work of the great John Cooqus, son-inlaw of Christian van Vianen.
A Charles II Chinoiserie Tazza
London, 1679 by Thomas King
Diameter: 13 3/4"
Weight: 32 oz. 16 dwt.
The arms are those of a lady of the Ashburnham family. The tazza is in fine condition, as evidenced by the fact that it has only lost 12 pennyweights over 350 years (the original scratchweight of 33 oz. 8 dwt. is recorded under the base).
Literature: Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby’s Directory of Silver 1600–1940, 1986, p. 136, pl. 477
David Mitchell, Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, 2017, p. 541
Provenance: Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 20 April 1972, lot 102
A Canadian Collector; Christie’s, New York, 30 October 1991, lot 300
A William III Chocolate Cup
London, 1695 by Roger Grange
Height: 3 3/4 "; Weight: 7 oz. 17 dwt.
A rare form, intended for drinking chocolate, which in the seventeenth century was served warm, and could therefore be drunk from a silver cup.
Provenance: S. J. Shrubsole, 2014
Height: 10 ½ "; Weight: 30 oz. 12 dwt.
A remarkably large pair of wrought column sticks.
A William III Tumbler Cup
London, 1698
Height: 2 ½ "; Weight: 5 oz. 7 dwt.
This tumbler, from the collection of Walter Chrysler Jr., serves as a reminder of that gentleman’s banishment from these sacred halls (Shrubsole, that is).
An established customer, he called the shop one Friday and said he wanted to decorate his entire dining room in George II silver, forthwith. My stepfather shelved his Friday afternoon golf game, and he and the staff packed up and delivered a pair of soup tureens, a pair of candelabra, a set of four candlesticks, two dozen plates, and a range of salvers and meat dishes. On the Monday morning Mr. Chrysler called again to say oh well you know it didn’t really work terribly well and could someone come pick it all up please. Eric sent our porter, Charlie Glazer, to pick it up, but
Charlie returned empty-handed to report that it was all dirty, and that he had refused to pack it, because it was caked in gravy and gristle, wine and wax. Mr. Chrysler then called to say “Mr. Shrubsole, your man was very rude to my butler!” Business must have been good, for Eric replied “Mr. Chrysler, perhaps you could ask your butler to clean the food off the dirty dishes and return them in the state they went out to you, and once that’s done, Sir, please, take your business elsewhere.” Years later when Chrysler sold some of his collection at Parke-Bernet, Eric bought most of the better things — noting next to this tumbler: “VG”, for “very good.”
Provenance: Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 18 October 1956, lot 7
S.J. Shrubsole
The Museum Silver Shop, New York
A Charles II Tumbler Cup
London, 1675 by Arthur Manwaring Height: 2 1/4"; Weight: 5 oz.
A fine Charles II tumbler cup engraved with a particularly attractive coat of arms — those of Rudyard, Rudyer or Rudger.
Provenance: How of Edinburgh Ltd., 1968. How’s invoice records the maker as Andrew Moore, an attribution that has since been corrected.
A Pair of Small William III Candlesticks
London, 1699 by Thomas Parr Height: 6 1/8"; Weight: 13 oz. 13 dwt.
A George I Scottish Sugar Bowl & Cover
Edinburgh, 1718 by John Seatoun
Height: 3 1/4"; Weight: 8 oz. 19 dwt.
Covered sugar bowls of this period and with this style of cap cover are exceptionally rare in Scottish silver. A nearly identical example (the only one we’ve ever seen) was illustrated in the fifties in Commander How’s Notes on Antique Silver, where he writes “though very rare indeed, Scottish silver of this period is every bit as fine as the best of that made in London, and is notable for an even greater severity of line.”
A George I Scottish Tazza
Edinburgh, 1724 by David Mitchell
Diameter: 5 ½"; Weight: 5 oz. 14 dwt.
The arms are those of MacDouall (or McDowall) — though whether “of Logan” or “of Bankton” is still being debated.
A Late Seventeenth-Century Scottish Silver-Mounted Wood Quaich
C. 1690, probably by John Falconer of Glasgow, with an early eighteenthcentury rim
Width: 10 3/4" across the handles
Of early form and constructed of walnut or laburnam wood segments, this is a particularly large and early quaich.
Provenance: Lieutenant James Mackintosh (d. 1799), thence by descent
Sotheby’s, Hopetoun House, 26 April 1988, lot 44 (ills)
A Set of Four Queen Anne Candlesticks
London, 1713 by Paul de Lamerie Height: 6 ½ "; Weight: 47 oz. 6 dwt.
These simple and beautiful candlesticks are among my favorite purchases this year. Though they date from the very beginning of Paul de Lamerie’s career, they clearly show by their subtly bolder proportions why he would so quickly (only three years later) earn the title Goldsmith to the King. These were made for a member of the Huguenot Chenevix family, whose English origins can be traced to Philip Chenevix, who
fought and died at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. He left his son Paul Daniel to continue the family name as a retailer of high-end goods from a shop at the Sign of the Golden Door, meaning he was part of the same band of second generation Huguenot retailers as the maker of these candlesticks. (Thanks to the Huguenot Museum, Rochester, for this information.) These are one of only two surviving sets of four Lamerie candlesticks from the Queen Anne period.
A Pair of Queen Anne Octagonal Tapersticks
London, 1713 by Thomas Parr Height: 5"; Weight: 8 oz. 14 dwt.
The arms are those of Clifford for either Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Chudleigh (1663–1730), or Thomas Clifford (1687–1718), his son. In 1713 Thomas married Charlotte Maria Livingston, in her own right the Countess of Newburgh in Scotland. The date suggests these sticks may have been part of a wedding present from the father to the son.
Provenance: Christie’s, London, June 1988, lot 37
William Hamilton, New York collector S. J. Shrubsole, 1994, sold to S. J. Phillips, London
Private Collection, England
A Queen Anne Octagonal Sugar Bowl & Cover (Opposite page)
London, 1710 by William Fleming Height: 4"; Weight: 9 oz. 10 dwt.
A Queen Anne Snuffer & Stand (At right)
London, 1708 by Matthew Cooper Height: 6"; Weight: 10 oz. 9 dwt.
This perfectly preserved snuffer and stand is just a superb survival. Strangely, and probably because it was once part of some kind of travelling equipage, the stand unscrews to become two pieces. The crest may be that of De Gaunt.
Shown here larger than actual size.
Dublin, c. 1715 by Anthony Stanley
Height: 9 5/8 "; Weight: 61 oz.
One of the finest and boldest pieces of Irish silver we’ve had in many years — a colossus by the great Dublin silversmith Anthony Stanley, made for Rodolphus Greene, who became Sheriff of Waterford in 1717.
A Large George II Cake Basket
London, 1733 by Louis Laroche
Diameter: 12 1/4"; Weight: 79 oz. 3 dwt.
An unusual and massive cake basket by the virtually unheard of silversmith Louis Laroche. His name pegs him of course as a Huguenot, but this basket says more about him than anything else recorded.
A George II Salver
London, 1733 by Thomas Farren
Diameter: 14 7/8"
Weight: 61 oz. 2 dwt.
A simply superb example of English engraving, brilliantly preserved from the days when that craft had been brought to its highest level by the likes
of William Hogarth, Joseph Sympson, Charles Gardner, and others.
Provenance: Hugh Jessop, London
George Heyer
Christie’s, New York, 19 October 2004, lot 1063
A George II Basket
London, 1740 by Robert Brown
Length: 11 3/8"; Weight: 49 oz.
The arms are those of Read impaling Truman for Henry Read of Crowoode (1722–1786) and his wife, Frances (1726–1801), daughter of Sir Benjamin Truman, a brewer.
A George II Silver-Gilt
Mounted Porcelain Sweetmeat Basket
London, c. 1750 by John Harvey Length: 4 1/8"
The porcelain is an early eighteenthcentury Chinese blanc de Chine libation cup modelled after carved rhinoceros horns.
A Rare George II Creamer
London, 1740 by Edward Feline Height: 5"; Weight: 7 oz. 15 dwt.
A similar jug is illustrated in Bernard Hughes, “Georgian Milk and Cream Jugs — Examples from the Collection of Mrs. W. B. Munro of Pasadena, California”, Apollo, June 1956, p 201.
Another similar piece but with a different foot and handle design is at the Ashmolean Museum. See British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, by Timothy Schroder, vol. 2, no. 293, p. 778.
A Pair of Georgian SilverMounted Coconut Cups
C. 1745, unmarked Height: 9 5/8 "
There are few objects of English silver which document slavery, and by extension attitudes toward it, as bluntly as these. They descended in the Bentinck family (the Dukes of Portland) whose vast wealth came at least in part from
West Indian sugar plantations. The carved coconuts show the sugar trade and the coconut trade, and to use remarkably apt decorative arts lingo — the coconuts are “supported by” slaves.
Provenance: George Augustus Cavendish-Bentinck, right hon., P.C., M.A, M.P. (1821–1891)
William George Frederick CavendishBentinck, barrister, J.P., family trustee of the British Museum (1856–1909)
Victor Frederick William CavendishBentinck, 9th Duke of Portland, C.M.G., diplomat (1897–1990)
Thence by descent.
A George II Treasury Inkstand of Irish Interest
London, 1755 by Edward Wakelin
Length: 11 ½"; Weight: 85 oz. 10 dwt. The crest and coronet are those of Fitzgerald, under a Marquess’ coronet, probably for James Fitzgerald (1722–1773). He was created Marquess of Kildare in 1761 and Duke of Leinster in 1766, and married Emilia Mary, daughter of Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox, in 1747.
The family seat Carton, co. Kildare, designed by Richard Castle, is considered the finest country house in Ireland. Their Dublin townhouse, Leinster House, is now the Irish Parliament. There is an exact copy of this piece, dating to 1817 and made for the same family, in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland.
A Set of Six George III Candlesticks
London, 1762
by Simon & Augustin Le Sage
Height: 13 ½ "; Weight: 181 oz.
It is a bit of a mystery why these candlesticks bear Masonic emblems, but the likeliest explanation is that they were a gift to a lodge. We have had one other similar pair.
The arms appear to be those of Eyre or Ayre impaling Kemp or Russell.
A George III Salver, a Memento of William Pitt the Younger London, 1782 by John
Diameter: 14"; Weight: 38 oz.
The salver was owned by Pitt and bears his arms. The later engraving (i.e., everything but the arms) was added, possibly by a legatee, to commemorate the great statesman.
A Large Pair of George IV Soup Tureens & Covers from the Sampaio Service
London, 1823 by Paul Storr Width: 17"; Weight: 382 oz.
Winner of the “best in class” award (i.e., best piece of silver at the fair) at Treasure House 2024, these magnificent tureens are in superb condition.
The Sampaio Service was commissioned by Henrique Teixeira de Sampaio, the Conde de Povoa, in 1823. By the twentieth century much of it was in the collection of Sunny von Bulow, and was sold by Sotheby’s in 1988.
The Arkwright Stirrup Cups
Please see inside the front cover for a description.
An Early American Teapot
New York, c. 1762 by Daniel C. Fueter
Height: 7"; Weight: 19 oz.
We continue to try to pin down the monogram, and its relation to the engraved initials nw and the date 1762 on the underside.
Boston, c.
An American Japonesque Vase
New York, c. 1876 by Tiffany & Co.
Height: 10 ½"; Weight: 23 oz. 8 dwt.
A tea caddy featuring similar Japanese ivory plaques to these is illustrated in John Loring, Magnificent Tiffany Silver, 2001, p. 35. Loring speculates that the ivory plaques were acquired by Christopher Dresser on his buying trip to Japan in 1876, and sold to Tiffany.
On the back cover and above:
An American Mixed-Metals Coffee Pot
New York, c. 1878 by Tiffany & Co. Height: 10 7/8"; Weight: 31 oz. 16 dwt.
This gourd-shaped coffee pot is one of the more unusual and beautiful forms of Tiffany mixed-metals hollowware from the late 1870s.
The design is by Edward C. Moore, the firm’s design director, who drew on his extensive collection of Asian and Middle Eastern decorative arts for inspiration. He was the subject of Collecting Inspiration, a recent exhibition at the Met, which included an almost identical example made for the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle.
Tel: (212) 753-8920
Fax: (212) 754-5192
www.shrubsole.com