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Two world record prices for English silver
On July 22nd, 2010 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
The Maynard Dish, Paul de Lamerie, London, 1736/37,
which was sold in 1991 by Christie’s, London,
for the then world record price of £1.485m.
Upon its previous appearance at auction at
Sotheby’s, London, in 1970, it had realised £27,000.
(photo: Sotheby’s, London)
The world of antique English silver has been thrilled recently by a new auction record price. Lord Raby’s silver cistern, about which I wrote in my last blog, realised £2.2m when it appeared at Sotheby’s, London, on 6 July. Once it was established that this was indeed a new record, the inevitable question was: what was the previous most expensive piece of English silver to have appeared at auction? We had to look back to 1991 when Christie’s Silver Department, London, made the then world record of £1.485m for a large Paul de Lamerie silver sideboard dish.
This remarkable tour-de-force of the goldsmith’s craft, now in the Cahn collection of de Lamerie’s work, is raised, cast and chased, its central cartouche enclosing the arms of Maynard, thought to be for Grey, 5th Baron Maynard (1679-1745). While the latter, whose plate included several other pieces from Paul de Lamerie’s workshop, remains a shadowy figure, his dish with its ‘lively figural border of figures emerging from richly chased natural settings and broken cartouches’ has been described rightly as ‘a key work of rococo silver’ (Ellenor Alcorn, Beyond the maker’s mark: Paul de Lamerie silver in the Cahn collection, 2006).
Notwithstanding that the dish bears de Lamerie’s mark, the identity of the artist responsible for its design and models remains a mystery. Recent writers suggest that he may have been a chaser, working for de Lamerie between 1737 and 1745. Indeed, this nameless genius has been dubbed the ‘Maynard Master.’
A detail of the border of the Maynard Dish, Paul de Lamerie, London, 1736/37,
thought to have been made for Grey, 5th Baron Maynard,
of whom a contemporary wrote, ‘was distinguished by his Sweetness of Temper,
and exemplary Patience and Resignation, in a lingering Illness.’
(photo: Sotheby’s, London)
For examples of Paul de Lamerie’s silver available through myfamilysilver.com, see a pair of sauceboats (1749) and a soup tureen (1747)
Gilbert Marks: an exceptional Arts & Crafts talent
On November 12th, 2009 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
a silver dish with a chased chrysanthemum design by Gilbert Marks
(The Studio, London, September, 1895, p.220)
Forty years ago the ‘big three’ among English silversmiths were still considered to be the two Pauls (de Lamerie and Storr) and Hester Bateman. They were also the first to have books written about them, probably because so much from their workshops had survived: de Lamerie in 1935, Storr in 1954 and Bateman in 1959. Of more recent silversmiths almost nothing was heard, except, perhaps, for Omar Ramsden whose work was celebrated by a centenary exhibition in Birmingham in 1973.
Since then, however, determined efforts have been made by many researchers to broaden our view of the British silver industry. The result has been to add further fascinating details to what was already known about de Lamerie, Bateman, Storr and Ramsden and their respective worlds, as well as to pull from relative obscurity the work of dozens more excellent firms and gifted individuals.
Gilbert Leigh Marks (1861-1905) is one independent silversmith, who in a career of only about ten years, managed to produce a body of finely made objects of lasting beauty. Early admirers warmed to his style; The Art Journal (1897), for instance, noticed the finish of his bowls, vases and beakers: ‘the dull yet exquisite grey of unpolished silver.’ The Studio (1895), agreed, adding that his pieces were ‘not over-ornamented, pleasant plain spaces being left which served to accentuate the beauty of the designs.’
Marks’s patterns were from nature: chased flowers, leaves and fruit against softly patinated surfaces, with occasional observations of fish leaping through water.
a silver bowl, chased with a design of salmon leaping through water, signed ‘Gilbert Marks 1898,’ an inscription on the interior records that it was given as a Cowes Regatta prize that year by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales; it realised £51,600, including premium, when sold at Bonhams, London, in July 2008
(photo: courtesy of Bonhams, London)
- Various items of interest are currently listed on myfamilysilver.com, including a Newcastle Guild of Handicrafts silver jardinière in the Arts & Crafts style, hallmarked, Birmingham, 1906.
Old silver in the miniature world of cigarette cards
On October 29th, 2009 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
no. 12 in the ‘Old Silver’ series of 25 lithograph cigarette cards issued in 1924 by W.D. & H.O. Wills, Bristol and London: a George II silver wine cistern, Paul de Lamerie, London, 1726, made for the 4th Earl of Scarsdale and sold on his death to agents of the Empress Anna of Russia. This magnificent piece, weighing over 2,600 ounces, returned to London from the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, for the first time in nearly 250 years for the Paul de Lamerie exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall in 1990
Collectors of cigarette cards and admirers of antique silver may not appear to have much in common. Since the first cigarette cards were issued in 1875 their publishers searched far and wide for interesting subjects. To the original sets, depicting actresses, baseball players, boxers and Native American heroes, all chosen to appeal to the largely male population of cigarette smokers, other subjects were added. Before long sets of cigarette cards became miniature illustrated guides: John Player & Sons, for instance, issued a series of 50 in 1909 of British mansions and their owners’ coats-of-arms; and W.D. & H.O. Wills published a series of 40 in 1938 entitled ‘The King’s Art Treasures,’ which included a Charles II silver-gilt wall sconce, complete with accompanying text.
In 1924 Wills had issued a set of 25 ‘Old Silver’ cards, which attempted to give a glimpse of English silver from the 14th to the early 19th Centuries. The most surprising object to be included was a virtually unknown piece from Paul de Lamerie‘s workshops: a gigantic wine cistern of 1726 made for the 4th Earl of Scarsdale (1682-1736) and purchased soon after his death for the Empress Anna of Russia (1693-1740). Wills’s text, unhappily based on imperfect information, confused this cistern with another bearing the mark of Philip Rollos, London, 1699, and coat-of-arms of the Duke of Kingston, which is believed to have been given to Catherine the Great (1729-1796) by the Duchess of Kingston, the notorious Elizabeth Chudleigh.
nos. 4, 8 and 11 in Wills’s ‘Old Silver’ series of cigarette cards: an Elizabeth I bell salt; a pair of snuffers, snuffers stand, chamber candlesticks and extinguisher, circa 1690; and George I coffee pot, Paul de Lamerie, London, 1717
- Various items of interest are currently listed on myfamilysilver.com, including the following, maker’s mark of Paul de Lamerie: a pair of sauceboats and a soup tureen and cover; also various salt cellars, snuffers, &c, and coffee pots, &c.
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Elegantly wrought in frosted silver
On October 15th, 2009 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
a Victorian silver table snuff box in the form of a mess tent, Joseph Angell, London, 1850, presented to Major Loftus Francis Jones on his retirement from the 96th Regiment of Foot. The gilt interior of this unique object is engraved with an inscription, recording the fact that Jones (d. 1853) had been with the regiment since its formation in 1824. (photo by courtesy of Sotheby’s, London, 5 March 1970, lot 89)
Recently someone asked me if I had a favourite among the many silversmiths whose work I had examined over the years. My head spun at such a question! Few apart from my colleagues in the field have been so fortunate to handle so much, although even a casual museum visitor cannot fail to acknowledge the glorious legacy we have from silversmiths’ endeavours, past and present.
My answer to that question depends on so many factors, not least the latest fascinating piece I have been researching or cataloguing, in which case Paul de Lamerie springs to mind. Then again, certain silversmiths were specialists, like Thomas Pitts whose workshop was known for its epergnes, or Ebenezer Coker and the Cafes for candlesticks.
Under torture, I might have to admit that a favourite is the Angell family business of silversmiths which flourished in London throughout the 19th Century, particularly that of Joseph Angell (1816-1891) whose stock, some of which was enamelled, attracted so much attention at the Great Exhibition of 1851. An unusual example of the Angells’ silver, a special order, was a table snuff box in the form of a mess tent made for presentation by his brother officers to Major Loftus Francis Jones on his retirement from the 96th Regiment of Foot. Detachments of the latter having been deployed for convict ships heading for the Antipodes, The Courier, a Tasmanian newspaper, reported in February 1851 on Major Jones’s box, telling its readers that it was ‘elegantly wrought in frosted silver.’
- Various snuff boxes are currently listed on myfamilysilver.com, as well as other interesting items from Paul de Lamerie, Ebenezer Coker and William Cafe, and the Angells
Scandal on Antiques Roadshow!
On January 21st, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Latest News.
If you live in the UK, did you catch the “Antiques Roadshow†on the BBC last weekend?
Among the usual family bric-a-brac and occasional gem, there was a rather intriguing antique silver tray bearing the maker’s mark of Paul Storr. As you already know but if you didn’t, Mr Storr was the mega-star maker of the late Georgian and Regency period. He was also the only English silversmith to rival Paul de Lamerie in the fame game.
The tray was engraved with a inscription explaining that it had been presented to a civic worthy in the market town of Hertford in December 1830. The tray was otherwise bog standard for this date i.e. it had a heavy cast border and feet with elaborate chased decoration. All, however, was not quite as it seemed.
As specialist Ian Pickford patiently and lucidly explained to the viewer, the hallmarks on the tray were in keeping with the inscription. They were struck in 1799/1800 at the height of the neo-classical period when it was quite impossible for such a highly elaborate tray to have been made. Still with me? This is exciting stuff!
So what had happened? Well, after gently pointing out that its obvious later alterations made the tray illegal (!) Ian suggested that an earlier Storr piece (possibly a salver or dish) had been cut up and used as the basis of the tray.
For me, this explanation begged a bigger question because Storr was still very much alive in 1830 and surely no other silversmith would perpetrate such an obvious fraud? I also think it is inconceivable, given the circumstances, that the good people of Hertford would have knowingly ripped off the recipient with a dodgy gift.
More likely I’m thinking is that they went to the best silversmith in London (i.e Mr Storr) to buy the flashiest piece they could. Unfortunately, their budget didn’t match their high ambition so maybe the renowned (but naughty) Paul Storr himself sold them this cut-price pup.
Scandal! Discuss! What do you think?
John Culme, who for many years has been connected with Sotheby's Silver Department, is author of several books and articles, including The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, 1838-1914, published in 1987, and co-author with Nicholas Rayner of The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. He is also a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, London.
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