Sixteen table spoons
Category
Silver
Date
1733
Materials
Silver
Measurements
40 mm (Width); 210 mm (Length)
Place of origin
The Hague
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436551
Summary
Sixteen table spoons, silver-gilt, maker's mark GB beneath a coronet (unidentified), The Hague, 1733. The spoons are of the Hanoverian pattern with a single drop to the base of the egg-shaped bowls and plain, tapered stems with upturned terminals. The gilding is later, probably of the early 19th century. Heraldry: Each spoon is engraved on the reverse of the terminal with a lozenge containing the arms of Bentinck impaling Temple, within a knotted and tasselled cord surround and beneath an earl's coronet. These are the arms of Jane Martha Temple, Countess of Portland (1672-1751), widow of William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649-1709) and ancestress of Sophia Hume, Lady Brownlow (1788-1814). Hallmarks: The reverse of the stem of each spoon is marked with the lion rampant beneath a coronet indicating silver of 87.5% purity, the date letter 'L' beneath a coronet for 1733, The Hague city mark of a stork with an eel in its mouth beneath a coronet, and the unidentified maker's mark 'GB' beneath a coronet.
Full description
The size suggests these were made as table spoons but they may well have been gilded in the early 19th century for use with dessert. Jane Martha Temple, Countess of Portland, whose arms these spoons bear, was the second wife of the 1st Earl of Portland. Their elder son, William, 1st Count Bentinck (1704-74), inherited his father's Dutch estates [1] and this connection probably explains the presence of these spoons amongst the Countess's possessions. She served as governess to the daughters of George II as Prince of Wales and King.[2] Her portrait by Michael Dahl is amongst the set in the Beauty Room at Petworth House (NT 486209). Sophia Hume, Lady Brownlow, first wife of the 2nd Baron and 1st Earl Brownlow, was descended from two of Lady Portland's daughters. Lady Sophia Bentinck (1701-41) married Henry Grey, Duke of Kent and their daughter Lady Anne Sophia Grey (d. 1780) and her husband John Egerton, Bishop of Durham (1721-87) were the parents of Amelia Egerton, Lady Hume (1751-1809), Sophia's mother. Lady Elizabeth Bentinck (d. 1765) married Henry Egerton, Bishop of Hereford by whom she was mother of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham. Lady Elizabeth was left 500 ounces of her mother's silver in the Countess's will [3] and the spoons must have been amongst the items that she took. Though they could have been subsumed into the Egerton or Bridgewater silver (Sophia Hume's uncles were the 7th and 8th Earls of Bridgewater) and descended with that to the Brownlows in the mid 19th century, the 1890 list of the 3rd Earl Brownlow's plate [4] records them amongst the Belton pieces which suggests that they had come earlier, and probably with Sophia Hume. James Rothwell National Curator, Decorative Arts NOTES [1] https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/family/portland/biographies/biographyofhanswilliambentinck,1stearlofportland(1649-1709).aspx#:~:text=John%20Albert%20Bentinck%20(1737%2D1775%3B%20naval%20captain%20and%20M.P. Accessed 13 May 2022 [2] G.E. Cokayne (ed.), The Complete Peerage, volume 6, 1895, pp. 272-3. [3] The National Archives, PROB 11/787/164, Will of Jane Martha, Countess of Portland, Dowager, 3 February 1750/1, proved 20 April 1751. [4] National Trust, Belton House, 'Inventory of Plate. The Rt. Hon. the Earl Brownlow. 1890', p. 121: '16 Plain gilt Table spoons 35 [ounces]'.
Provenance
Jane Martha Temple, Countess of Portland (1672-1751); her daughter Lady Elizabeth Egerton (d. 1765); her son John Egerton, Bishop of Durham (1721-87); his daughter Amelia Egerton, Lady Hume (1751-1809); her daughter Sophia Hume, Lady Brownlow (1788-1814); by descent to the 7th Lord Brownlow (1936-2021); purchased from him by the National Trust with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund in January 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, the Brownlow Collection (National Trust)