A George III silver soup tureen, cover, liner, stand and ladle, Thomas Pitts for Parker & Wakelin, London, 1768

applied and engraved with the arms of George III enclosed by the order of the Garter, cast, chased and applied in contemporary French style with bold swags and sumptuous cauliflower finial, the navette-shaped stand edged with leafy reeded rim enclosing rayed fluting, leaf pads and centred by acanthus around an applied berry, ladle repeating the ornament, liner with shell grips, engraved No 1 or 1, tureen with scratchweight 123=18, stand 192=1, liner 26=0, ladle 1(5) =8, liner maker's mark of Thomas Pitts, London 1768, otherwise fully marked

Simon first Earl Harcourt (1714-77) and thence by direct descent

 

`The Glory of the Garden' loan exhibition in conjuction with the Royal Horticultural Society, Sothebys London, 2-28 January 1987, no. 190

Marks: Finial - lion passant Cover - full set of good marks Parker& Wakelin overstriking Pitts Liner - full set of good marks Thomas Pitts Body - full set of marks with some wear, Parker & Wakelin Stand - full set of excellent marks Parker & Wakelin overstriking Pitts Ladle - full set of reasonably good marks Parker & Wakelin overstriking Pitts General: Armorial engraving crisp, armorial engraved twice on base, once on liner and once on ladle. Cast armorials twice on body with light wear but still good. Body - three small dents to body and very slightly dented above two of the body supports (legs) where pressure is exerted due to weight Stand - one of the feet of the stand is slightly pushed inwards, as a result the stand does not stand without rocking. None of these issues are serious and a good restorer could deal with them. Liner - repairs to both handles of the liner and some overall nicks and dents to the rim, but pretty good condition for a liner. Finial - good condition Overall - general condition of the whole is very good and decoration crisp. This is a wonderful tureen and the first of its design ever to appear in England.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The Ambassadorial order
The tureen and its ladle are recorded in the goldsmith Parker & Wakelin's invoice, to Earl Harcourt of 13 March 1769, one of (fig. 1):

`To 2 large fine ov. (oval) and 2 Do (ditto)  round terrines, ladles, linings and dishes' (stands)^'1

Five days later on 18 March the cost to Parker & Wakelin is noted in their creditor's account showing the actual maker to have been Thomas Pitts (fig. 2)². This is born out by the Pitts's mark on the liner of the present tureen and traces of Pitts's mark under those of Parker & Wakelin's on the other elements.

Earl Harcourt had been appointed ambassador to France and in accordance with the rules was awarded a quantity of silver by the king to take with him. It would have been inconceivable at the time for a great Lord, representative of a powerful King to be unsupported in his dignity by the magnificence of silver. Harcourt as with other ambassadors would have had complete authority to order what he wanted in the style he wanted. As silver was money the fundamental restriction was only on the weight of his allowance. This indenture of plate was a highly valued ambassadorial perquisite. It could be melted in times of emergency or non-payment of the ambassador's expenses, but importantly it represented a potential bonus, as more often than not the ambassador was allowed to keep the silver at the end of a successful mission. Much of earl Harcourt's huge order of 13 March (nearly one quarter of Parker & Wakelin's total bullion turnover for the year³) was part of this ambassadorial allowance. Items from this order can be directly followed by weight and description into the Jewel House, an office of state under the Lord Chamberlain whose job it was to control the movement and storage of jewels, precious metal, robes etc for the monarch and other officers not necessarily of the household, such as ambassadors.  Of Earl Harcourt's four tureens and ladles (2 round 2 oval) of the Parker & Wakelin account of 13 March 1769, two tureens and ladles were receipted by the jewel office on 17 March 1769. They were delivered to Lord Harcourt 4 days later⁴(fig. 4).

There is an apparent weight discrepancy between the two tureens and ladles of the ambassadorial indenture, approx. 548 oz, and the four in the Parker & Wakelin inventory, approx. 1394 oz.  It is of course possible that Lord Harcourt sourced a pair of tureens and ladles outside the Parker & Wakelin account of 13 March , but this seems unlikely as all other items in the Jewel office account can be traced back to this day. In addition the present tureen and ladle is embellished with the arms of the king, not Lord Harcourt's own, a good sign that they were intended for ambassadorial use. An explanation for this discrepancy might be a mistake in the accounting (not unknown) or some flexibility in the Jewel office record where reconciling the ambassador's wish list with his weight allowance must have been a daunting task. Of the 22 ambassadorial issues between Lord Tyrawley's embassy to Russia in 1744 and Lord Harcourt's to Paris in 1769, the weight of white plate delivered by the Jewel office to each ambassador never varied by more than a fraction of an ounce from the official allowance of 5893 oz⁵. This is an unbelievable achievement when a single fork would alter the total by more than 2 ounces.

On 26 August 1773, Lord Harcourt was discharged,  by order of the King from his obligation to return the silver which had been `delivered...unto our Right Trusty and Right Wellbeloved Cousin and Councillor..Simon Earl Harcourt late our Ambafsador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Most Christian King' ⁶ (fig. 3).

The Tureen and Robert-Joseph Auguste
Writers have noted the French style of this tureen, apparently the earliest example of its form in England and suggested the influence of George III's francophile architect William Chambers⁷. While Chambers may have been involved, the clearest influence is from the most renowned Parisian goldsmith of the time, Robert-Joseph Auguste. Lord Harcourt owned Auguste models which were copied for him by Parker & Wakelin soon after their purchase, most notably, a pair of Auguste's renowned ice pails, Paris, 1766-67(fig. 5), first of their type known, signed by Auguste as a form of copyright, and copied by Pitts in London, within a year⁸. The Pitts copies, which are the earliest recorded English model, appear directly below the tureens in Harcourt's 13 March account with Parker & Wakelin. Similarly two pairs of the same tureens made by Pitts for Charles Pelham, 1st Baron Yarborough in 1769⁹are known to have been accompanied by a pair of ice pails after the same Auguste model. Clearly the tureens and pails were meant to compliment each other, with identical ornament on each.
Auguste's influence is apparent in other elements of the tureens which are repeated on a series made by him for the Danish court in 1757-60, notably the feet, handles and centres of their respective stands (see detail & fig.7). Most interesting of all are the Harcourt ladles, by description in the contemporary accounts, as much part of the tureens as the covers, liners and stands. These are largely copying a set of ladles by Auguste, part of the same Danish commission (see detail & fig. 8)¹⁰. Authoritative opinion on Auguste is equivocal about the Harcourt tureen being a direct copy of an Auguste model. But given the visual evidence and the history of such copying of Harcourt's Auguste-made pieces, with its profound influence on English silver in a wider context, an interpretation at the least, of an Auguste tureen existing at the time seems likely¹¹.

Lord Harcourt
Simon Harcourt (1714-1777), grandson of Lord Chancellor Harcourt one of the Regents of the Realm and descended from a French family of ancient lineage, was a Lord of the Bedchamber to George II (1735-51),  during which time he was created Viscount Nuneham of Nuneham Courtney and Earl Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt. He was governor to the Prince of Wales (later George III) and ambassador to Mecklenburg-Strelitz at the time of the marriage of George III to Princess Charlotte of that Duchy. Harcourt was sent by George III with a miniature portrait `richly and most prettily set round with diamonds' to show his intended bride, and to escort her back to England. He was made master of the Horse to Her Majesty, and his daughter Lady Elizabeth Harcourt was one of the Queen's bridesmaids `dressed in white and silver' and wearing a diamond coronet at the royal wedding in September 1761. Three years after his wife Rebecca le Bas's  death, Lord Harcourt accepted the appointment as ambassador to France, setting out from his house in Cavendish square on 3 January 1769, being received by Louis XIV a week later. In 1772 he became Viceroy of Ireland as Lord Lieutenant (1772-77). He died in an accident when trying to save his dog in 1777, and was buried at Stanton Harcourt¹².

Notes

1. Parker & Wakelin Gentleman's ledger entry, 13 March 1769, Archives of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London  (AAD/1995/7/7)

2. Parker & Wakelin Workman's ledger entry, 18 March 1769, Archives of Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (AAD/1995/7/8)

3. Helen Clifford, Silver in London, The Parker and Wakelin Partnership 1760-1776, New Haven and London, 2004, p. 56

4. The Jewel Office, Delivery Book entry, 26 August 1769, The National Archives, UK (LC9/45, fol. 248)

5. James Salzmann, `Deliv'd for the use of his Lordship's Table': British ambassadorial silver from William and Mary to George IV,  Dissertation for the Master's Degree in Fine and Decorative Art, Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, 2007, pp 60/61).

6. The Jewel Office, Warrant Book entry, 21 Match 1769, The National Archives, UK (LC 5/11, fol. 118)  

7. Hilary Young, `Sir William Chambers and John Yenn: designs for silver', Burlington magazine, vol. 128, January 1986, pp. 31-35.
Helen Clifford, Silver in London, The Parker and Wakelin Partnership 1760-1776, New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 170-174.
Important English Furniture and Silver, Sotheby's London, 4 June 2008, lot 237

8. The Harcourt Silver, Sotheby's London, June 10 1993.
Important Silver Gold Boxes and Vertu, Sothebys London, 20 October 2003, lots 196 and 197
Helen Clifford, Silver in London, The Parker and Wakelin Partnership 1760-1776, New Haven and London, 2004, pp. 164-170.

9. Important English Furniture and Silver, Sotheby's London, 4 June 2008, lot 237

10.  A King's Feast, the Goldsmith's Art and Royal Banqueting in the 18th century, The Danish Royal Silver Room, exhibition at Kensington Palace, 5 June - 29 September 1991

11. Harcourt also owned a set of `festoon' candlesticks and candelabra by Robert-Joseph Auguste, Paris, 1766/67. Eight festoon candlesticks are recorded in Harcourt's account with Parker & Wakelin's of March 13 1769. These, among the earliest recorded in England would have been hallmarked, London, 1768. A pair, matching the weight of the Harcourt examples, London 1768 `engraved with a coat of arms', were sold Christies Geneva, 11 November, 1975, lot 48.

12. The Harcourt Silver, Sotheby's London, June 10 1993. See: The introduction where much of the information was taken from the The Harcourt Papers, vols. 1-X111 edited by Edward William Harcourt (1825-1891) and published privately in 1880