A Charles II silver cup and cover, maker's mark IH above a fleur-de-lis and two pellets (Jackson's p.130), London, late 17th century

This maker's mark appears on a number of pieces including: a pilgrim bottle, London 1663 (Sotheby's, London, 18th June 1981, lot 193); a spice box, London 1672 (Sotheby's, London, 20th February 1964, lot 93); a pair of vases and covers, London 1675 (Christie's, London, 14th December 1938, lot 73);  a gold cup and cover, London 1680 (E.A. Jones, Old English Gold Plate, pl VII); a porringer, London 1680 (Phillips, 14th July 1978, lot 213); a pair of vases (maker's mark only, Christie's, London, 2nd March 1994, lot 115)

The arms with the motto ‘MENS FLECTI NESCIA’ on one side of this cup are those of Hulton of Hulton Park, Lancashire, quartering others including Jessop. William Hulton (1625-1694) of Hulton, and M.P. for Clitheroe in 1660, was married in 1656 to Anne, daughter and co-heiress of William Jessop of Warwick House, Holborn, and sometime M.P. for Stafford. A stained glass panel with the arms of Hulton impaling Jessop for this union is to be found in the east window of the Hulton chapel in Deane Church, Bolton, north east of Manchester, Lancashire.¹ The arms (Hulton quartering Jessop and others, with Ford in pretence) of Mr. Hulton’s great-great-great-grandson, also William Hulton (1787-1864), who in 1804 married Maria (1792-1866), youngest daughter of Randle Ford (1761-1811) of Wexham, Berkshire, and Bloomsbury Square, London, are preserved in the Hulton family of Hulton Park Collection in the Lancashire Archives.²

The second coat-of-arms on this cup are those of Jessop.

Notes

1. J. Paul Rylands, ‘Heraldic Memorials of the Hulton Family in Deane Chuch, co. Lancaster,’ Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Liverpool, 1917, p. 112, fig. 6. See also Robert Walmsley, Peterloo: The Case Reopened, Manchester University Press, 1969, ch. I.

2.https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/mediaImages/lancashire/194609.jpg, accessed 19 September 2023. This William Hulton was a landowner, magistrate and collier, for whom see Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hulton#References, accessed 19 September 2023.