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Silver Surfers: My Family Silver in Financial Times’ How To Spend It magazine
On November 29th, 2010 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
I was delighted to see writes founder Martyn Downer the wonderful article on myfamilysilver.com in the Financial Times’ influential luxury magazine How To Spend It  last Saturday. In the three page exclusive feature, journalist Simon de Burton explored the background to the business and how it has revolutionised the ability of buyers to find silver decorated with specific family crests. Cynthia Harris of Sotheby’s Silver Department says the website “has increased immeasurably the likelihood of bringing buyers and objects together”. Read the full article here: how-to-spend-it
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)
Lord Raby’s great wine cistern
On June 17th, 2010 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
Lord Raby’s silver wine cistern,
maker’s mark of Philip Rollos senior, Britannia standard,
London, 1705/06,
engraved with the arms of Queen Anne,
which is to be offered for sale in the Treasures sale at Sotheby’s,
London, on 6 July;
weighing over 80kg (2,500 troy ounces),
and measuring 129.5cm (51in) over handles,
it is expected to realize between £1.5 and 2.5 million.
(photo: Sotheby’s, London)
Last week The Daily Telegraph published a photograph taken at Sotheby’s, London, of 19 month old Leo emerging happily from what looked like a silver bath. This was no gimmick, however, because the ‘bath’ was actually a 300 year old cistern or wine cooler which has been sent for sale and the photograph, complete with baby Leo, demonstrated to perfection the vessel’s enormous size. In fact, of the ten such cisterns made at the expense of the public purse during Queen Anne’s reign, this was the largest and heaviest.
Created between about September 1705 and 9 May 1706 in the workshops of Philip Rollos, this wonderful object has descended in the present owner, the Marquis of Lothian’s family since it was made. Even more extraordinary is that it has evaded the notice of connoisseurs of old English silver, including the late Dr Norman Penzer who in 1957 published a list of what he thought were all 25 or so surviving cisterns. Furthermore, it is only within the past three months that the precise origin of the piece has come to light.
The cistern originally belonged to Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Baron Raby (1672-1739); it formed part of his allocation of silver and silver-gilt when Queen Anne’s Ambassador to Berlin between 1706 and 1711. The magnificent size of the piece, together with the noble effect of his other plate were calculated to add lustre both to Raby’s office and to him personally as a trusted representative of the British monarch.
Lord Raby’s great wine cistern recently in a photographic studio at Sotheby’s
(photo: Sotheby’s, London)
When is a silver cup most likely to run?
On March 18th, 2010 John Culme wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
‘When is A Silver Cup most likely to run?’
a cigarette card from a series published by Lambert & Butler Ltd of London, early 20th Century
The answer to Lambert & Butler’s old chestnut of a riddle is, ‘When it’s chased.’ A slender twig upon which to hang this latest glance at old silver, perhaps, but consider the importance which the chaser’s art has always played in the decoration and finishing of plate. Even today, artist craftsmen like Rod Kelly exploit the technique to brilliant effect.
It may seem odd but in 18th Century London a display of silver was used to help young chimney sweeps and milkmaids beg for alms on May Day as they danced ‘in fine and fantastic attire’ through the streets. In 1776 Judge Samuel Curwen saw them in Ave Maria Lane carrying a pyramid-shaped ‘garland’ decked with a silver tankard and other plate, topped by a chased silver tea kettle.
In literature as in real life, ‘chased’ as applied to silver means highly wrought, noteworthy, often expensive, as when Oscar Wilde‘s evil hero Dorian Gray hesitated to inform his guardians of the purchase of a chased silver Louis-Quinze toilet set, because they could not understand ‘that we live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.’ How true; most of us are in thrall to the unnecessary. Who, for instance, really requires ‘A SUMPTUOUS TEA POT, with massive chasings’ representing a banquet and a combat of cavalry? But this arresting example from Edward Farrell’s factory (ex Duke of York’s collection, Christie’s, 1827) is typical of work that inspires admiration as much for its appearance as for its craftsmanship.
A George III chased silver tea kettle, Benjamin Brewood, London, 1761. For their May Day parade the milkmaids are supposed to have borrowed silver from pawnbrokers but it is worth remembering that many working silversmiths were in and around the City of London. Brewood, for instance, had premises near Fleet Street and towards the end of the 18th Century there were several well-established silver factories in Ave Maria Lane and nearby Paternoster Row.
(photo courtesy of Sotheby’s, London, 2002)
The one that got away
On July 9th, 2009 myfamilysilver wrote on the subject of Uncategorized.
Ask any auctioneer’s cataloguer if he or she ever handled an object that got away: vanished from view, leaving the uneasy feeling that a better job could have been done. The answer will almost certainly be ‘yes.’ Life in a busy auction house often sweeps experts along on a tide of new objects arriving daily, each one clamouring, as it were, for attention.
As a cataloguer of many years’ standing myself, I can certainly relate. One piece I remember in particular when at Sotheby’s Belgravia in the 1970s was a silver candlestick mounted with mother of pearl, cabochon stones and carved ivory. The consignor, a dealer, knew nothing of its provenance and few expectations as regards value. We settled on a reserve and a few days’ later I sat down to write a catalogue entry. This was no great chore because the candlestick was unusual and nicely made. But I had a hard time in deciding where it had been made and when, let alone guessing who its maker might have been. My colleagues were no better informed, so I feebly wrote, ‘early 20th Century, probably German.’
The candlestick failed to sell, was returned to the owner and disappeared.
Then, several years later I discovered that it had been made by the Strassburg goldsmith Philipp Oberle. He had also created a number of objects in blackened metal and silver-gilt set with semi-precious stones, ivory and enamel with which he had shown successfully at the Brussels Exposition of 1910.
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from Die Goldschmiedekunst, Leipzig, 27 August 1910, p. 333
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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