Provenance
Supplied to Robert Lowndes Esq., (1680-1727)
Possibly Samuel Jones Loyd, 1st Baron Overstone of Overstone and Fotheringay (1796-1883)
Michael, 1st Baron Burton (1837-1909)
Sir Phillip Sassoon 3rd Bt. (1888-1939) and thence to his sister
Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley (1904-1989) and thence by descent to
The Houghton Sale; Christie’s London, 8 December 1994, lot 97 and thence to
The Whiteley Trust and thence to the
Silver from the Collection of The Whiteley Trust; Christie’s London, 13 June 2000, lot 11
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Literature
Chrichton Brothers of 22 Old Bond Street, inventory of plate, The Property of Sir Phillip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W1%, 1 January 1930, Christie’s Review of the Season, 1995, p.130
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Description / Expertise
Plain circular and with gadrooned rim and broad border, the centre engraved with coat-of-arms within baroque scroll, foliage, husk swag and scale-work cartouche, the reverse later engraved with two crests. Marked on reverse and engraved with scratchweight ‘173-6’ and later scratchweight ‘172=16’, and with inscription ‘Fecit Peter Harache’.
The arms are those of Lowndes impaling Atcherley for Robert Lowndes Esq. of Dover Street, Westminster and Winslow Hall, Buckingham (1680-1727) and his wife Margaret, daughter and later heir or Richard Atcherley, who he married at St. Stephen Wallbrook on 24 June 1703. She died on 18 April 1728 and was buried at Winslow. Robert Lowndes’ father William Lowndes (1652-1724), was secretary to the Treasury and is remembered for the maxim ‘Take Care of the Pennies and the Pounds will take care of themselves’.
The later crests are those of Loyd and Bass.
The crest of Loyd is possible for Samuel Jones Loyd (1796-1883), later crested 1st Baron Overstone of Overston of Fotheringay co. Nottingham in 1859.
The crest of Bass is for Michael, 1st Baron Burton, K.C.V.O. (1837-1909), of Rangmore Hall, Burton-on-Trent, so. Stafford and Chesterfield House, London.
The ewer which originally accompanied this dish, and now ungilded, is in the Schroder Collection, illustrated in T. Schroder, The Art of the European Silversmith, Silver from the Schroder Collection, New York, 1983, ill. P. 159 and p.160. When sold by the Selby-Lowndes family at Christie’s London, 22 March 1888, lot 132, it had already been separated from the dish.
As Schroder discusses (op. cit., p.161), it is difficult to say with certainty whether the ewer or basin were made by either Pierre Harache I or by his son, the father dying in 1700, the year this set was made. Both father and son were greatly admired for their work and received many commissions from the nobility and landed gentry. In fact Pierre Harache I was the first Huguenot to gain admittance to the Goldsmith’s Company. At the court held on 21 July 1682, an order of the Lord Mayor and council of Alderman of the City of London was read, requiring
‘…that the daind Peter Harache shall be admitted in to the Freedom of this City by Redemption into the Company of Goldsmiths’ paying to Mr. Chamberlain to the City’s use forty-six shillings and eight pence.’ At the same time the following certificate was presented: -
‘These are to certify all whom it may concern that Peter Harache, lately come from France for to avoid persecution and live quietly, is not only a Protestant, but by his Majesty’s bounty is made a free denizen, that he may settle here freely with his family in token whereof we have given him this certificate.’
It is interesting to compare this lot with another sideboard dish, with its ewer, made by Samuel Hood, London 1699, sold in these Rooms, 22 November 1991, lot 113. Made for Charles Lowndes, half-brother of Robert Lowndes, the original owner of this dish, it illustrates the more typical restrained border found on English work at this time, as opposed to the heavy fluted or gadrooned border more typical of Huguenot silversmiths. The engraved cartouches, however are very similar. Both the Samuel Hood ewer and dish are silver-gilt, however, as mentioned above, the ewer made with this dish is not gilded. It is possible that it was de-gilded sometime before it was sold in these Rooms in 1888, alternatively it is possible that the dish was gilded later. It would seem more probable that both sets were originally gilded.
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