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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)
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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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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