A Set of Four George III Britannia Standard Silver-Gilt Sauce Tureens, Paul Storr, London, 1797

Christopher Hartop, Art in Industry: The Silver of Paul Storr. Cambridge: John Adamson for Koopman Rare Art, 2015, fig. 32, p. 39.

These sauce tureens belongs to a group of French neoclassical-style silver marked in London in the 1790s, and notable for being executed in Britannia standard. This standard had not been in usual use in England since the 1720s, but it does correspond to the silver standard in use in Paris for the finer work. The group is linked by matching palmette borders, as on these pieces, or finely-chased serpent handles, and probably represents a single important Louis XVI dinner service that was unable to be finished at the outbreak of Revolution, and was exported to London where there was still a market for luxury goods.

Paul Storr marked these sauce tureens, a pair of candelabra formerly in the Starr collection (sold Sotheby's, New York, 20 October 2020, lot 36), and one of matching pair at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where the other is marked by retailer Francis Magniac (see Literature, fig. 31, p. 38). John Scofield marked a pair of Britannia standard wine coolers of 1796-97 with borders matching the sauce tureens and candelabra, and Robert Sharp's mark appears on at least four sets of Britannia standard entrée dishes, 1796-97.  The multiple silversmiths represented suggests a middleman who broke up the French service and sold it to various London makers, each chosing forms appropriate for their respective clientele, and submitted the items to the Goldsmiths' Hall for marking.