The Stowe Cistern. A massive George I silver two-handled wine cistern, Jacob Margas, London, 1714

bombé oval with gadroon and leaf-tip rim, the neck engraved with the Buckingham arms, the body with applied lobes and leaves between shoulder and foot applied with strapwork, shells and husks, scaled dolphin handles with open mouths, the interior fitted (probably later) with drain hole and later plug; a 19th century addition removed from base

George Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (1753-1813), to his son
Richard, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1776-1839), to his son
Richard Platagenet, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1797-1861)
The Stowe Sale, Christie's, Wednesday, 6 September 1848 (18th Day), lot 420, described as "A noble cistern with embossings in the taste of the time of Queen Anne - on a raised foot, with dolphin handles"
Sold to Town and Emanuel for £330 12.
Robert, 1st Marquess of Crewe (1858-1945)
Sotheby's, New York, 3 November, 1989, lot 383
Wendell Cherry, New York, his sale
Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1994, lot 63

London: Garrards, 1915: "Exhibition of Choice Old English Plate from Private Collections in Aid of the Funds of the British Red Cross Society," no. 58 (as Samuel Margas)

Arthur G. Grimwade, F.S.A., London Goldsmiths 1697-1837: Their Marks and Lives, p. 591 (under Samuel Margas)

minor dings and scratches, slightly uneven surface commeasurate with age through at base of one handle and secured with a rivet four bellflower tips missing from strapwork on foot deeper scratch below of arms; traces of earlier engraving on other side Otherwise good, handsome form and well-modeled handles
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Massive silver cisterns, enormous reserves of precious metal formed into objects of display and ostensible use, represent the height of conspicuous consumption in the late Baroque period.  Fewer than 30 English examples are known to have survived from the first half of the 18^th century, and the current lot is one of only eight known from the reign of George I.

Most of the extant cisterns were made by Huguenot goldsmiths.  Jacob Margas Sr., whose mark appears here, was the son of Samuel Margas Sr., a Rouen goldsmith who emigrated to London about 1688.  Curiously, Jacob was apprenticed to Thomas Jenkins of the Butchers' Company, getting his freedom from that Company in 1706, which permitted him to enter his silver mark.  He is recorded in St. Martin's Lane, an area particularly dense with Huguenot goldsmiths.  Jacob appears as "Old Margas" on a list of Subordinate Royal Goldsmiths during the reign of George I, and together with his brother Samuel Margas Jr. (apprenticed to Jacob) supplied several pieces to the Royal Jewel House at this time.  Arthur Grimwade described this wine cistern, then attributed to Samuel (the marks are quite close, one with a fleur-de-lys below, the other star), as the smith's "most important work;" this would hold true for Jacob Margas Sr. as well.

The arms on this piece are those of George Grenville, afterwards Nugent-Temple-Grenville, created in 1784 Marquess of Buckingham.  His father was George Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister 1763-65, while his uncle - whom he succeeded in 1779- was the 1^st Earl Temple, described by George Lyttleton as "the richest man in England" (Michael Bevington, Stowe House, p. 16).  Leader of a very powerful section of the Whig party, he served as M.P. for Bucks 1774-49, Lord Lieutenant of the same from 1782 to his death, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1782-83 and 1787-89, Privy Council 1782, created Knight of the Garter 1786, and Secretary of State for four days in December, 1783.

George Grenville married in 1775 Mary Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Earl Nugent.  From his uncle he inherited Stowe House, recently remodeled on a gigantic scale, and with its famous landscape garden.  The Marquess himself hired Sir John Soane to remodel two houses into Buckingham House, Pall Mall.  Horace Walpole, with his usual waspishness, described the lord as "weak, proud, avaricious, peevish, fretful, and femininely observant of the punctilio of visits;" but contemporaries who praised him acknowledged "his manners are by no means formed to please, and his address and first appearance is rather unfavourable" (Complete Peerage).  Even George III stated, "I hate nobody, why should anybody hate me... I beg pardon. I hate the Marquis of Buckingham" (www.dukesofbuckingham.org.uk). Still, during his tenure Stowe was known for numerous house parties and extravagant entertainments, "with dinners and dances for hundreds at the slightest excuse" (Bevington, p. 17).  One of the Marquess' brothers wrote to another, "Stowe is alternately filling and emptying, or rather successively filling without emptying" (ibid).

The cistern would have passed with the rest of the fantastic collection at Stowe to George's son Richard, created 1^st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1822.  He was the only Duke created by George IV, supposedly as a mark of personal friendship, but title also recognized the Grenville family's switch to the Tory party.  He had a passion for the military, becoming a Colonel in the Bucks Militia and leading his battalion to France under the Duke of Wellington in 1814.  His extravagant spending began to catch up with him by the end of his life, and he shut up Stowe House for several years to save costs before his death in 1839.

His eldest son, Richard Plantagenet did nothing to abate the trend.  Already in debt £1.1 million, the "Greatest Debtor in the World," he extravagantly entertained Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at a newly refurbished Stowe in 1845.  By 1848 – only eight years after his succession – the 2^nd Duke was a ruined man.  The contents of Stowe were sold in a biblical 40-day sale that raised only £75, 562-4-6; While visitors came to gawk, public opinion was very strongly against a nobleman whose extravagance had wasted and ruined his patrimony.

Lot 420, the cistern, was purchased by the firm of Town and Emanuel, of 103 New Bond Street, "by Appointment to Queen Adelaide."  They were dealers in old furniture, china, and curiosities, as well as importers and makers of "buhl, marqueterie, r[i]esner & carved furniture," similar to their contemporaries E.H. Baldock and John Webb (Frances Collard, "Town & Emanuel," Furniture History, vol. XXXII, (1996), pp. 82).  The firm had supplied the 2^nd Duke of Buckingham with some of the antique Italian furniture he purchased before Victoria and Albert's 1845 visit, buying it back at the 1848 sale.  The firm seems to have made a specialty of buying at the great house sales of the period, as the sale of their stock in 1849 lists items from Wanstead, Fonthill, and Stowe, and references Strawberry Hill, Earlstoke, and Grimsthorpe.  From Stowe, as well as the cistern and Italian furniture, they also bought the antique silver-gilt St. Mawes Mace, and by 1849 were the owners of the Stowe State Bed.

The cistern is next recorded in a 1915 exhibition, as belonging to the Marquess of Crewe.  Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1^st Marquess of Crewe, was the son of Richard, 1^st baron Houghton, and his wife the Hon. Annabella, daughter of John, 2^nd baron Crewe.  He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1892-95, Lord President of the Council 1905-08, and Secretary of State for the Colonies 1910-15.  He was created Earl of Crewe in 1895 and Marquess in 1911, and served as Ambassador to France 1922-28.  He married in 1899, as his second wife, Lady Margaret Primrose, daughter of the 5^th Earl of Roseberry and Hannah Rothschild.  In the later 20^th century, the cistern formed part of the collection of Humana co-founder Wendell Cherry and his wife Dorothy.