Tureen base
Probably Andrea Boucheron or Paolo Antonio Paroletto
Category
Silver
Date
circa 1756
Materials
Silver
Measurements
36 cm (Width)
Place of origin
Turin
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk (Accredited Museum)
NT 852128.1.1
Summary
Round tureen base, one of two. Italian, c.1756. Almost certainly by either Andrea Boucheron or Paulo Antonio Paroletto, or them both working together. Although their maker’s marks are lacking here they are present on many of Lord Bristol’s other Turin commissions and as the most prestigious and talented goldsmiths then working in the city it seems highly unlikely that the premier pieces made for the English envoy would not have been executed by them, or at least to their design. The shaped circular ‘bombé’ base of the tureen rests on four cast and applied foliate scroll feet, the foliage continuing around the lower edge of the body, intertwining at either end with scroll and rocaille-work that rises around root vegetables to the shell-and-leaf upturned handles. All this detail is cast and applied as are the coats of arms on either side with frilled shields contained within C- and S-scrolls. Behind are chased ermine mantles and a chased lambrequin band with flutes and ovals sits below a cast and chased reed-and-tie moulding applied to the lip. The undersides have been cut out of the tureen base around the peripheral scrollwork. On either side of the tureen is the cast, chased and engraved quartered shield, supporters and motto of the 2nd Earl of Bristol beneath an earl’s coronet and against a chased ermine mantling. The finial handles of the covers are in the form of the Hervey crest.
Provenance
Part of the Bristol Collection. Acquired by the National Trust in 1956 under the auspices of the National Land Fund, later the National Heritage Memorial Fund
Marks and inscriptions
Base: Each of the bases is stamped on the inside face with the assay mark of Giovan Battista Carron (in office 1753-78), the Savoy cross in a shield flanked by ‘GB’ with ‘C’ beneath and a closed crown above. Scratchweights and inscriptions: On the underside of the covers: ‘A d [/] oz [/] 209 = 16 [/] 199=7’ and ‘B d [/] oz [/] 196 = 21 [/] 194=2’. The liners and the bases have either A or B scratched on them to identify the correct components of each tureen.
Makers and roles
Probably Andrea Boucheron or Paolo Antonio Paroletto, goldsmith probably Andrea Boucheron (circa 1692-1761), goldsmith probably Paolo Antonio Paroletto, goldsmith
References
James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection. Philip Wilson Publishers, 2016, pp. 137-8