A pair of George III silver candlesticks, John Carter, London, 1774

The arms are those of Garrick of Hampton co. Middlesex, impaling Veigel for the celebrated actor-manager, poet, playwright and theatrical producer, David Garrick (1717-1779), who married in 1749 the beautiful Eva Marie Veigel, a Viennese dancer known on the stage as Violetti.

Garrick revolutionised the English theatre with his innovative reading of Shakespeare. His impersonation of Richard III, first seen on 19 October 1741, catapulted him to fame at the beginning of a long and successful career during which he was beloved of audiences and managers alike. Of French Huguenot extraction, Garrick's emotional and realistic approach to his roles captivated his many admirers: 'That young man,' wrote the poet Pope, 'never had his equal, and never will have a rival'.

Having conquered London, 'Garrick fever' soon overwhelmed Dublin upon the actor's visit there in 1742. Back in the metropolis, Garrick dominated performances at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, of which he became manager in 1747. His tenure there lasted twenty-nine years, during which he excelled in roles of many hues, from tragedy to comedy. The year of his retirement, 1776, found him in still sparkling form, essaying the part of a cross-dressing knight. A London correspondent of The Edinburgh Advertiser reported to his Scottish readers on 5 February that,

The female head dress has now reached the highest degree of ridicule. It was time for the stage to lay hold of such extreme folly, and to expose it to the derision of the public. Mr. Garrick, in the part of Sir John Brute [in John Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife, one of his most famous roles], exhibited a most extraordinary lady's cap, ornamented with such a plume of feathers, ribbons of various colours, oranges and lemons, flowers, &c, and so formidable a toupee, that the audience gave repeated bursts of applause, and such peals of laughter, that the roof of the theatre seemed to be in danger. The ladies in the boxes drew back their heads, as if ashamed for the picture; and it is to be hope that for the future they will take a reef in, as the sailors say, and lower their topsails.

Garrick's sudden death in 1779 was followed by an outpouring of grief which culminated in his burial in Westminster Cathedral at the foot of William Kent's monument to Shakespeare. His old friend Dr Samuel Johnson lamented, 'I am disappointed by that stroke of death which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure,' words which in time were inscribed on Johnson's own memorial bust in Lichfield Cathedral by Garrick's widow. The latter outlived her husband by 43 years, dying at the age of 98 on 16 October 1822.

These candlesticks, together with Garrick's silver tea and coffee service, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a few items of table silver were sold by Lt.-Col. R. Solly at Sotheby's, London, on 19 October 1961 (lots 93-95). Solly was a descendant of Samuel Solly (d. 1847) whose wife Dorothea was the daughter of the antiquary Thomas Rackett (1757-1841) a friend of Mr and Mrs Garrick. Dorothea Solly was also in possession of 'a pair of elegant garnet bracelets, which had been left to her by Mrs. Garrick.' (John Thomas Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day,' 2^nd edition, London, 1845, pp. 272-273)