Lot Closed
October 20, 02:14 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A GEORGE IV SILVER BASKET FROM THE DUCHESS OF ST. ALBANS SERVICE, JOHN BRIDGE FOR RUNDELL, BRIDGE AND RUNDELL, LONDON, 1827
circular with open wicker-work sides, applied with fruiting vines, the center engraved with inscription around a side of ham within a ribbon-tied wreath, the handle with applied HStA below duchess' coronet
marked on base and handle and stamped with Latin signature of Rundell's
141 oz
4385 g
diameter 15 in.
38 cm
A gift to Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans (1777-1837) on the occasion of her first wedding anniversary in June 1828 and then by descent to her step-daughter.
Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), later Baroness Burdett-Coutts
The Coutts heirlooms: Christie’s, London, 14 May 1914, lot 83, sold €63 (to Heming)
Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882-1948), and then by descent
The inscription reads:
“In love connubial formed to live and Last,
This gift records a blissful twelve months past
We claim then boldly claim thy flitch Dunmow
First of the blest who keep they marriage vow!
June 10th, 1828".
Harriet Mellon (1777-1837) found fame as an actress in Regency England, and fortune as the mistress, then bride of Thomas Coutts, founder of Coutts Bank. On his death in 1822, he left her not just a fortune and what was said to be the finest collection of plate in the kingdom, but also significant control of the bank.
The wealthy widow attracted the attention of William Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St. Albans. They were married June 16, 1827. At their one-year anniversary, the couple held a “dejuner” at Holly Grove, their country house, attended by the Royal Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex and Prince Leopold, widower of Princess Charlotte and future King of the Belgians, plus a whole range of nobility.
During the celebrations the Duke of St. Albans noted the ancient custom referred to by Chaucer and held in the village of Little Dunmow in Essex, by which if a couple swore that they had not regretted their first year of marriage and withstood cross examination, they would be presented with a flitch of bacon, A contemporary report describes the event.
"In the month of June, 1827, Mrs. Coutts was united to his grace the Duke of St. Albans, Hereditary Grand Falconer of England and upon the anniversary of that happy event, at the fete champetre at Holly Grove, which their Graces gave a select party, including the Duke of Sussex and Prince Leopold, his grace too the opportunity to observe happy manner in which he had spent the preceding year with his amiable bride, and he also remarked that he would , if he could, have revived the old customer of claiming a flitch of bacon at the Dunmow, but as it was not in his power to do that, he begged the Duchess as a mark of his affection and regard, to except a silver fruit basket, in which he engraved a flitch, With the following lines attended" (the text engraved on this piece)
