Race cup
Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp
Category
Silver
Date
1764 - 1765
Materials
Silver-gilt, sterling
Measurements
48.1 x 40.4 cm; 31.4 cm (Height); 33.5 cm (Height); 21 cm (Width); 12.6 cm (Width); 18.1 cm (Height); 21.8 cm (Diameter); 4695 g (Weight)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516448
Summary
A two-handled cup and cover, silver-gilt (sterling), mark of Daniel Smith & Robert Sharp, London 1764/5, designed by Robert Adam. The cup stands on a deep undecorated foot ring supporting a moulded border of gadroons interspersed with four hexafoils, which in turn supports the spirally fluted spreading stem. At the top is a narrow torus with a border of quatrefoils within strapwork. The calyx is embossed and chased with alternating acanthus and stiff leaves, topped by a border of lanceolate leaves. Between the two borders a narrow square-section band is applied. Each side of the cup is applied with a cast and finely chased oval vignette within cast borders of beads and bellflowers. One vignette depicts two horses standing under a tree; one jockey mounted, the other about to mount. The opposite vignette is inscribed: “To the Best in Ireland” under the scene of two horses and their jockeys racing. Festoons of embossed and chased vines and grapes are suspended from four applied lions’ masks in a border of beads. A wide frieze, applied on one side with the figures of five jockeys and horses racing towards a finishing post where three men stand, and on the opposite side with five horses with their grooms and riders, has an engraved background of trees, low buildings and a windmill. At the rim is a narrow cast border of stiff leaves. The two cast handles are in the form of winged female caryatids with raised wings and twisted termini. The spool-shaped cover is formed of three sections. The lowest section is embossed and finely chased with a border of lanceolate leaves. Beneath it sits an applied flange. The waist is applied with a narrow border of Greek key decoration interspersed with four quatrefoils. The central section flares outwards and is embossed and chased with acanthus leaves. The top section is domed and embossed with fluting encircled by an applied cast gadrooned rim. The cast finial is formed as a fruiting berry. The area under the cover which overhangs the cup is inscribed: 'Hugh Percy, Earl of Northumberland, Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland 1764'. Heraldry: None Hallmarks: Fully marked on the inside of the foot ring and on the flange of the cover: ‘DS’ over ‘RS’ (Daniel Smith & Robert Sharp*), lion passant (sterling), leopard’s head (London), and ‘i’ (1764/5) *Arthur Grimwade: London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, London, 1990, p. 46, no. 507 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
In 1763 Thomas Dundas (1741-1820) invited Robert Adam (1728-1792) to design a cup for the annual race laid out on part of his family‘s estate, Aske Hall, near Richmond in Yorkshire. Adam was a natural choice; he was working for Thomas’ father, Sir Lawrence Dundas, (1710-1781) providing designs for his homes in Hertfordshire and London. Adam produced two drawings which are generally regarded as amongst the earliest attributable designs for neoclassical silver. However, Michael Snodin has shown that Adam’s drawings were not inspired by vases from antiquity, when vases with spool-like necks only existed in in flat decoration, but instead, were based on Jacques Stella’s (1596-1697) design for a vase, published in Paris in 1667. Adam’s first drawing, which was never used, has lions rampant (an heraldic supporter of the Dundas family) standing on the rim the cover. These handles were drawn directly from Enea Vico’s engraving of 1543 for a ewer with a single lion rampant handle. [1] The Dundas family rejected this radical design, opting instead for the second cup with its practical caryatid handles attached to either side of the body. Adam’s two sketches, signed and labelled ‘Vase for Thomas Dundas Esq’, survive and are housed in the Soane Museum along with the 9,000 drawings by Robert Adam and his younger brother, James, of which 114 pages show designs for silver. Daniel Smith & Robert Sharp made five cups to Adam’s design, and some with minor variations. [2] The vignettes of horses were not designed by Adam, nor are they unique to Smith & Sharp’s cups, but were cast and supplied by a specialist craftsman working from prints by Stubbs or Sartorius. Although Thomas Dundas had paid for the design, he could not exercise any control over for whom Smith & Sharp executed it. [3] In September 1764, at the same time as the first Richmond race cup was presented in Yorkshire, the Earl (later Duke) of Northumberland presented an identical cup “to the best in Ireland”, at the country’s most prestigious racecourse, the Currah in County Kildare. Hugh Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland (1714-1786) was born Hugh Smithson; he inherited a baronetcy from his grandfather, Sir Hugh Smithson, 3rd Bt. In 1740 he married Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1716-1776), daughter of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (1684-1750). On the death of her father, through her grandmother (first wife of the 6th duke) she inherited the title of Baroness Percy together with great wealth and estates, and her husband acquired by special remainder the earldom of Northumberland; the family’s name was changed from Smithson to Percy. In 1766, he was created 1st Duke of Northumberland. As Earl of Northumberland, he was a prominent politician and one of George III’s confidential advisers. Most importantly for the history of the cup, the earl held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1763 to 1765. The couple employed Robert Adam to work at Northumberland House in London, Syon in Middlesex and Alnwick in Northumberland. They were keen followers of horse racing and, unusually for a woman, the countess as well as the earl is listed as a subscriber to ‘An Historical List of Horse-Matches Run; and of Plates and Prizes Run for in Great Britain and Ireland, In the Year 1764’. The list records that on 15 September of that year, at Ireland’s most prestigious course, The Curragh, ‘a Plate, the Gift of the Earl of Northumberland, carrying Wt for Age, allowing Mares and Geldings 3lb, Wt, one 4 mile Heat, was run for and won by Mr. Dogherty’s Bay H. Champion, 5 Yrs. Old’. This ‘plate’ is Anglesey Abbey’s cup. What is not known is when Mr Dogherty or his descendants sold the cup. In 1740 George II passed a law decreeing that races must not be run for a prize – be it money or silver – worth less than £50. It was hoped this would prevent the lower classes, who were accused of ‘Idleness’, from engaging in horse racing. Racing had always been the ‘sport of kings’ with racecourses vying with each other for the best competitions and most aristocratic supporters. In 1764 prizes of £100 to £200 were not uncommon, but by commissioning a cup designed by Robert Adam at the extraordinary price of 300 guineas the Dundas family were broadcasting the pre-eminence of the Richmond Race in the sporting calendar. The Earl of Northumberland’s equally prestigious trophy dignified his position as Lord Lieutenant. (Only one prize in Ireland exceeded its value that year; worth 400 guineas it appears to have been a wager between the wealthy owners of two horses.) [1] Michael Snodin: ‘Adam Silver Reassessed’, Burlington Magazine, January 1997, pp 17-25 [2] Richmond Gold Cups made to Adam’s design were made in 1764, 1766, 1767 and 1770; and for the Duke of Northumberland in 1764. Cups similar but not identical to Adam’s design were made for Richmond in 1765, 1768 and 1771 and some subsequent years [3] Helen Clifford: ‘The Richmond Gold Cup: social, sporting and design history’, Apollo, February 1993, pp 102-4 Jane Ewart, 2025
Provenance
Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786) Mr Dogherty David Black of 1 Burlington Gardens, London W1, sold the cup to Lord Fairhaven on 29 November 1950, for £200, invoice 2025 (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
Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp, goldsmith Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer
References
Bonhams 2012: Bonhams Fine Silver and Gold Boxes, 20 June 2012, lot 141 (auction cat.), London 2012; venue: Bonhams, New Bond Street Woolley and Wallis 2005: Woolley and Wallis: 19 October 2005, lot 867 (auction cat.), Salisbury 2005; venue: Woolley & Wallis Alcorn 2000: Ellenor Alcorn, English Silver in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston 2000 Ellis, 1999: Myrtle Ellis. 'Huttleston Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) as a collector of English silver.' Apollo, 1999 Snodin 1997: Michael Snodin, ‘Adam Silver Reassessed’, Burlington Magazine, January 1997 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 Rowe 1965: Robert Rowe, Adam Silver 1765–1795, London 1965 Oman 1956: Charles Oman, ‘English Silver at Burlington House’, Burlington Magazine, January 1956, London Christie’s 1998: Christie’s London: Silver from Wentworth, 8 July 1998, (auction cat.), London 1998; venue: Christie’s, London