A Victorian parcel-gilt silver cup and cover, Charles Frederick Hancock, designed by Henry Hugh Armstead RA, London, 1866

Christies, New York, 17 September 1990, Lot 70

Bonhams, London, 13 July 2022, lot 38

Sir David Baxter, 1st Baronet (1793–1872) was born in Dundee to William Baxter, the owner of a linen manufacturing firm. David joined the family business in 1826 and encouraged the adoption of mechanical looms which greatly increased production. The company soon became one of the largest textile producers in the world, and he was able to amass a sizable fortune.

He was well known in his native town for acts of philanthropy, especially the donation, along with his two sisters, of 37 acre park on the outskirts of Dundee, the design of which they had employed Sir Joseph Paxton to design, best known for the Crystal Palace at the 1851 Great Exhibition. The engraved monograms on the base of the present lot (DB and MEB) suggest that it may have been given to David and his sisters Mary and Eleanor Baxter in gratitude for their act of generosity.

Henry Hugh Armstead, often referred to as H.H. Armstead, was an English sculptor, modeller and illustrator who was born in Bloomsbury, London, in 1828, the youngest son of John Armstead (1790-1861), a herald chaser. As a boy, he was taught in his father’s workshop the art of engraving and chasing heraldic devices, &c. before being sent at the age of 13 to the newly opened Government School of Design, Somerset House, London. After further study at two private art schools in London, he found employment at Hunt & Roskell’s silver factory in Harrison Street, Gray’s Inn Road. He also became familiar at that time with the studio of the sculptor Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867), a pupil of John Flaxman, who had worked for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, and Paul Storr and his partners and successors. Armstead also provided designs and models for C.F. Hancock’s silver factory. Among the most significant of his work in silver is the Tennyson Vase, made in 1867 by Hancock, Son & Co. (Now in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Ailsa Mellon Bruce and Berdan Memorial Trust Fun, accession no. 2007.57.A-B); and the silver-gilt shield made by Hunt & Roskell in 1862 for presentation to Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram in recognition of his military successes in India (on loan since 1864 to the South Kensington Museum, now the Victoria and Albert Museum).From the 1860s Armstead increasingly employed his talents as a sculptor, including work on the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1875, and Royal Academician in 1879. He died in 1905.