Bowl and cover
Wolfgang Howzer
Category
Silver
Date
1658
Materials
Silver-gilt, glass
Measurements
24.5 x 23 x 14.4 cm; 1500 g (Weight)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516443
Summary
An ovoid red glass bowl or cup with silver-gilt mounts, handles, foot and cover, London, circa 1660, mark of Wolfgang Howzer. At the base an undecorated circular foot ring is soldered to the slightly domed foot, which is embossed and chased with four panels of overlapping acanthus leaves round a sunflower on a matted ground. Screwed to its surface are four cast triple-scrolled feet, which are soldered to a cross-shaped support for the blown, undecorated, red glass ovoid bowl. Four vertical straps, embossed with grotesque masks whose long beards descend into acanthus leaves, are held by hinges at the base and the rim mount. The mount’s band of clasps is scalloped and lightly chased with a fringe of dots. Above is a narrow gadrooned border and a slightly everted rim. The two handles, each cast in the form of a greyhound standing on an S-shaped scroll, are soldered to straps on either side of the body. The raised circular cover is applied with a narrow gadrooned border; soldered underneath is a narrow flange which sits outside the rim of the cup. The slightly domed centre is embossed and chased with a spiral of acanthus leaves on a matted ground round the central domed knop with undecorated spool-shaped sides and a central platform embossed and chased with curled leaves. On top a cast and finely chased finial in the form of a crowned eagle with outstretched wings is attached with a nut. Heraldry: None Hallmarks: Maker’s mark only, stamped on the upper surface of the foot ring and on the spool on the cover: ‘WH’ (Wolfgang Howzer*) *David M. Mitchell: Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London Their Lives and Marks, London, 2017, pp 582-583 Scratch weight: None Exhibitions: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and Victoria & Albert Museum, London: Cambridge Plate, An exhibition of silver, silver-gilt and gold plate arranged as part of the Cambridge Festival, 1975
Full description
The mounts and cover bear many similarities to those marked by Wolfgang Howzer on a porcelain brush pot in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. [1] Both have features typical of Howzer’s work: embossed and chased decoration of exceptional quality; low raised covers with spool-shaped knops supporting a finial; handles cast with greyhounds standing on scrolls; applied narrow gadrooned borders; and a finely chased fringe of dots on the scalloped clasps. However, Anglesey Abbey’s bowl is closer in shape to the pair of porcelain bowls in the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; although the mounts on these bowls are of gilt-metal, not silver. [2] They are, therefore, not stamped with a sponsor’s mark but their quality is so exceptional that they have been attributed to Howzer, or his workshop. The Swiss Wolfgang Howzer served his apprenticeship with his father Hans Jacob II in Zurich, becoming free in 1652. Like many young north European goldsmiths he may have been encouraged to have a wanderjahre, a period of travel to learn new skills. Certainly by 1658 he was working in London and had received an introduction to the Vintners’ Company which commissioned him to make a large set of plate for Bishop Cosin’s chapel at Bishop Auckland. The altar dish and flagon are of superb quality, but they occasioned the bishop’s steward to comment “he is a good man but deere”. Howzer also worked on the altar dishes made for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the Chapel Royal, Whitehall. [3] Foreign workers (known as aliens or strangers) brought new and superior skills to England. This threatened the local craftsmen who believed the ‘aliens’ would steal their business or undercut their rates, so they made it difficult for them to join the guilds. Goldsmiths had to register their mark (usually two initials) at the Goldsmiths’ Company before their work could be struck with hallmarks. Without hallmarks it was illegal to sell metal wares described as ‘silver’ or ‘gold’. This meant that foreign goldsmiths, who were forbidden from registering their mark, often worked for English goldsmiths. Some ‘aliens’ risked selling their work without hallmarks, as Howzer obviously did when making the chapel plate for Bishop Cosin. His style is so distinctive that it has been possible to recognise his workmanship on silver bearing the marks of both Francis Leake and Henry Greenway. In May 1664 Howzer and Jacob Bodendick (from Limburg) presented the Goldsmiths’ Company with a letter from the King commanding the wardens to assay and hallmark their work. Although the wardens reply drew attention to the underemployment of English craftsmen, they agreed to comply. We know of Howzer’s mark, ‘WH’ over a cherub, as it appears in the Goldsmiths’ Company’s Court Minutes connected with offences he committed. The mounts for this bowl are only struck with Howzer’s maker’s mark, no hallmarks, which suggests it was commissioned by a private client. Alternatively, Howzer could have made it between arriving in Britain (on or before 1658) and being granted the right to have assay marks struck on his silver in 1664. The King’s second letter to the wardens says he would stipulate that Howzer and Bodendick should ‘imply his Native subjects and not Strangers in their manufacture’. Either the Howzer was never told of this condition or chose to ignore it, as he employed his nephew, Hans Heinrich, from 1681. Heinrich never registered a mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall, so may not have worked in silver. It is also not known if he took over his uncle’s business when Howzer died circa 1688. [4] Lord Fairhaven bought most of the silver for Anglesey Abbey from David Black of 1 Burlington Gardens, London, W1. However, his mother, Cara, Lady Fairhaven, was a good customer of H Blairman & Sons of 28 New Bond Street, London, W1. So perhaps he was visiting Blairman’s shop with her in June 1941 when he bought the ‘Charles II silver-gilt 2-handled cup and cover, ruby glass bowl, undated … Circa 1680’ for £185, as shown on their invoice 1114. The bowl and its cover may have been altered twice before they were bought by Lord Fairhaven. Firstly, the straps do not hug the bowl tightly, suggesting that the red glass may have replaced another bowl, perhaps of porcelain. Secondly, the finial sits uncomfortably on the knop and its form and chasing do not appear to be 17th century, so it may be a replacement or an addition. [1] Victoria & Albert Museum, London: Accession Number: M.308:1,2-1962 [2] J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles: Object Number: 85.DI.178 [3] Charles Oman: Caroline Silver 1625-1688, London, London, 1970, pp. 33-34, plate 43 [4] Charles Oman: Caroline Silver, ibid.
Provenance
H. Blairman & Sons of 28 New Bond Street, London W1, sold the cup and cover to Lord Fairhaven in 1941 for £185, Invoice 1114 (Urban) Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven (1896-1966) bequeathed by Lord Fairhaven to the National Trust along with the house and the rest of the contents National Trust
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, the Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Wolfgang Howzer, goldsmith
References
Chrighton 1975: Dr R.A. Chrighton, Cambridge Plate: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Silver, Silver-Gilt and Gold Plate arranged as part of the Cambridge Festival 1975 (ex. cat.), Cambridge 1975; venue: Cambridge Festival, p.21, plate MTD11 Glanville 1990: Philippa Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England: A Social History and Catalogue of the National Collection 1480–1660, London, V&A Publications, 1990. Wilson 1999: Gillian Wilson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain in The J Paul Getty Museum, 2nd ed., Los Angeles 1999, p.22-5, no.1