A Set of Four Early George I Silver Candlesticks of Dutch Interest, Pierre Platel, London, 1714

Arend, Baron van Wassenaer (1669-1721)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's London, 12 November 1991, lot 184

with Tessier, London

Collection Lord Harris of Peckham, sold

Christie's London, 25 November 2008, lot 44

The arms are those of van Wassenaer impaling Bentinck for Arend, Baron Van Wassenaer (1669-1721), Ambassador Extraordinary of the States General at the Court of St. James's. He was the son of Jacob van Wassenaer, who was also ambassador. In 1701 he married Anne Margaretta, the daughter of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649-1709), and the sister of Henry, 1st Duke of Portland. Baron Van Wassenaer was ambassador in London in 1715, presumably when he acquired the present candlesticks.

The design of these sticks can be seen in a pair of French candlesticks by Charles Petit, Paris, 1701-1702, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (48.187.245-46). Variations have been noted by other Huguenot silversmiths in London including a further pair of 1714 by Lewis Mettayer (see Loan Exhibition of Old English Plate, 25 Park Lane, London, 1929, no.551) and a set of six by David Willaume I (Parke Bernet, New York, 18 October 1956, lot 108).