A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER WINE COOLERS, LINERS AND RIMS, PAUL STORR FOR STORR & CO, London, 1808, RETAILED BY RUNDELL, BRIDGE & RUNDELL

cast and chased with rams' heads, scrolls and bunches of grapes below acanthus and palm leaves, cartouches enclosing coats-of-arms, cherubs and floral festoons, applied scroll handles and entwined strap and bead borders, the detachable cylindrical liners each engraved with the crests of Dalrymple and Hamilton, the bases stamped RUNDELL BRIDGE ET RUNDELL AURIFICES REGIS ET PRINCIPIS WALLIÆ LONDINI FERCERUNT, respectively numbered 1 and 2

Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton 4^th Bt. of North Berwick, co. Haddington, and Bargeny, Aryshire, and thence by descent
Sold Sotheby's, London, 16 October 1975, lot 200
Property of a Private Continental Collection

 

The bases, liners and rims all with clear hallmarks, gereral decoration and engraving crisp, weight and quality superb. Minor pitting on one shoulder panel, otherwise in overall excellent condiiton.
"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 Family...

The arms are those of Hamilton quartering Dalrymple within a border compony or and purpure for Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton 4^th Bt. of North Berwick, co. Haddington, and Bargeny, Aryshire. He was born on 3 January 1774, the eldest son of Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton 3^rd Bt., and his wife Janet, daughter of William Duff of Crombie, and succeeded to the title upon the death of his father in February 1800. Less than three months later the young Sir Hew married the Hon. Jane Duncan (d. Paris, 1852), the eldest daughter of Admiral Adam Duncan, 1^st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. 'In her youth she was reckoned one of the most beautiful women of her day, and attracted much admiration when, resting on the arm of her stately and gallant father, she appeared in the royal procession which went to St. Paul's after the battle of Camperdown [11 October 1797] to give thanks for the great naval victories' (The Gentleman's Magazine, London, April 1852, p. 430).

Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton, who was MP for various Scottish constituencies between 1795 and 1826, was in litigation ('the great Bargany cause,' begun in 1793 by his father) with the Hon. Marianne Mackay Hamilton Fullarton, eldest daughter of the 5^th Baron Reay, a distant kinswoman, over the entail of the Bargany Castle Estate in Ayrshire. After 32 years the case was finally settled in June 1825 in Sir Hew's favour whereupon North Berwick erupted in scenes of jubilation; 'the town bells were instantly set a ringing, and every old musket was in requisition by the inhabitants, to testify their joy upon this great event. Bonfires were lighted up at the cross, and upon the top of North Berwick Law, and in the evening the whole town was brilliantly illuminated. ... At half-past nine Sir Hew and his lady, accompanied by his much esteemed brother Major-General Dalrymple, his lady, and others of their friends, made their appearance, and were received with the most enthusiastic huzzaas, which they politely returned with the waving of handkerchiefs, and cordially shaking by the hand all those who came within their reach...' (The Edinburgh Advertiser, Edinburgh, 28 June 1825, p. 406).

The Dalrymple-Hamilton family still owns Bargany, where the 3^rd baronet made many improvements and additions to the house and gardens, adding greatly to the beauty of the estate with the importation of plants and trees. Sir Hew, who died on 23 February 1834, also patronised the royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell from whom he purchased between about 1806 and 1808 a silver dinner service and other items, some of which, including the present coolers, were sold at Sotheby's, London, on 16 October 1975 (lots 191-200), and yet more at Sotheby's, London, on 5 June 1997 (lots 76-80).

The Earliest Copy...

As has been observed by Ellenor Alcorn (Beyond the Maker's Mark, Paul de Lamerie Silver in the Cahn Collection, John Adamson, Cambridge, 2006, no. 44, pp. 113-115), these coolers are the earliest known copies of original 18^th Century examples bearing the mark of Paul de Lamerie, of which at least one pair has survived. The latter, struck with the date letter for 1749/50, are engraved at a later date with the arms of Francis, 3^rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803). This nobleman, celebrated for his canal building projects no less than for his collection of paintings, may well have purchased the coolers during the 1790s, when he was enlarging his country seat at Ashridge, Hertfordshire, and making alterations to Cleveland House, the family's London mansion. This period also coincided with a surge of interest by wealthy fashion conscious enthusiasts in fine furnishings, including the best second-hand silver. Sophie von la Roche on a visit from her native Germany to London in 1786 was told at 'Messrs. Jeffries' silver store [probably Jefferys & Jones of Cockspur Street, Charing Cross] . . . that antique, well-preserved pieces . . . often find a purchaser more readily than the modern. This is because the English are fond of constructing and decorating whole portions of their country houses, or at least one apartment in old Gothic [i.e. old fashioned] style, and are glad to purchase any accessories from the same or a similar period' (Sophie in London, 1786, translated and edited by Clare Williams, Jonathan Cape, London, 1933). We cannot doubt the validity of this remark, rather than assume that all surplus old plate was summarily melted, when so many London goldsmiths' advertisements and trade cards had for many years detailed their interest; Stephen Ardesoif's announcement of the mid 1760s, for instance, is a familiar one: 'NB. Buys & Sells all sorts of Second-hand plate' (trade card, Ambrose Heal, The London Goldsmiths, 1200-1800, Cambridge University Press, 1935, pl. III). Furthermore, there are plenty of extant pieces made in the first half of the 18^th Century besides the above-mentioned de Lamerie coolers in the Cahn Collection that changed hands a generation or two after they were made. Among the most striking may be sited Lord Montfort's silver tureens, designed by William Kent and supplied by George Wickes in 1744, which in 1757 were purchased second-hand by the Earl of Lincoln (later the Duke of Newcastle); and the Paul de Lamerie soup tureen of 1736 (one of a pair, which may have originally belonged to the 4^th Earl of Chesterfield), which was acquired from an unknown source by William Drury-Lowe (1753-1827), of Locko Park, Derbyshire, probably during the early 1790s at a time when he is known to have patronised Gray & Constable, jewellers, Sackville Street, and Rundell & Bridge, goldsmiths, Ludgate Hill (Sotheby's, London, 4 June 1998, lot 223).

The Historical Context...

It is clear from this and other evidence, that by the first years of the 19^th Century the London trade in old silver was in a very flourishing condition, when Garrard's (commercially descended from George Wickes) and Rundell, Bridge & Rundell were among the leading dealers. It was at this moment, however, that demand began to outstrip supply; to judge from surviving pieces it was between 1806 and 1808 that newly made silver in retrospective styles began to appear for the first time, not as some special order anomaly but as various goldsmiths' deliberate policy. Besides the present wine coolers of 1808, early examples include a number of quilt and shell pattern candlesticks, John Mewburn, London, 1806, based on originals bearing the marks of William Solomon, London, 1752 (Sotheby's, Luton Hoo, 20 May 1995, lots 78 and 79); a soup tureen and cover, Paul Storr, London, 1807, probably retailed by Rundell's, similar to a pair of William Cripps examples of 1756 (Christie's, London, 2 March 1994, lot 70; Sotheby's, London, 20 February 1964, lot 95); a pair of leaf-shaped dishes, Robert Garrard, London, 1807, almost identical to a set of four, Edward Wakelin, London, 1758 and circa (Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 14/16 September 1972, lot 450; Sotheby's, London, 11 November 1993, lot 452); and a set of four candlesticks, Paul Storr, London, 1808, probably retailed by Rundell's, copies of originals in gilt bronze designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, 1729 (Morrie A. Moss, The Lillian and Morrie Moss Collection of Paul Storr Silver, Miani, 1972, pp. 112-113, pl. 52; Peter Fuhring, Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, Un génie du rococo 1695-1750, Umberton Allemandi & C., Turin and London, 1999, vol. II, pp. 193-196, nos. 29 and 29a).

By 1809 the manufacture in London of high quality reproduction silver, or pieces that were inspired by old silver and silver-gilt plate, was in full swing. The most extreme examples in this taste were made for the retail goldsmith Kensington Lewis by Edward Farrell's workshop during the next decade or so, when Lewis's chief customer, the Duke of York ordered thousands of ounces of silver and silver-gilt in archaic styles. Indeed, it was from this period that interest in old silver began its relentless hold on English collectors and the silver trade as a whole, stimulating academic research (by Octavius Morgan, William Chaffers and others); promoting the manufacture of reproductions for a mass market, particularly from the 1880s; and encouraging the rise of a new class of retailer: the dealer in antique silver, among whom during the first half of the 20^th Century Crichton Brothers were probably the most celebrated.