A PAIR OF SHEFFIELD PLATED DISH COVERS, PROBABLY BOULTON & FOTHERGILL OF BIRMINGHAM, THE DESIGN POSSIBLY BY JAMES WYATT, CIRCA 1777

This model of dish cover has been associated with the important Neoclassical dinner service delivered for bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu. The group was ordered by her from Boulton & Fothergill, and was made probably to designs by the architect James Wyatt. The finials on the dish covers and design of radiating bellflowers match the silver soup tureens of the service, 1776-77 (partial and promised gift to the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky) and the sauce tureens (Birmingham Assay office). 

The service would have been used in Mrs. Montagu's impressive freestanding house in Portman Square, where she employed James Wyatt from 1780 to finish the interiors; he had been supplying designs for Boulton & Fothergill from at least the middle of the preceding decade.