Cup and cover
Paul Storr (1771-1844)
Category
Silver
Date
1795 - 1796
Materials
Silver-gilt, sterling
Measurements
37.3 x 24.9 cm; 31.2 cm (Height); 28.9 cm (Height); 19.3 cm (Width); 10.4 cm (Width); 10.3 cm (Height); 13.5 cm (Diameter); 2170 g (Weight)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516451
Summary
A two-handled cup and cover, silver-gilt (sterling), mark of Paul Storr, London 1795/6. The ellipsoidal cup and cover and the trumpet-shaped stem are raised, and stand on a square foot made of seamed sheet silver. Resting on the foot is a circular convex border of oak leaves, which supports the undecorated stem. The cup’s calyx is embossed and finely chased with a band of lanceolate leaves. Applied round the upper body are four festoons of graduating husks which drape either side of an engraved coat of arms and crest within leaf and ribbon mantling on one side, and, on the opposite side, the inscription: ‘Feby 19/ 1796/ from the Society/ for the propagation of the Gospel/ to/ John Brathwaite Esqr/ as a permanent mark of their Gratitude and Esteem/ for his attention in retrieving their Estates in Barbados/ and for paying to them the Sum of £12,769 cleared beyond the Rent/ which they consider as a Benefaction’. The two cast loop handles are reeded. The domed cover is embossed with a corresponding band of lanceolate leaves centred on a finial cast in the form of a mitre. The flange is applied with a narrow vertical locating bar which slots into a groove cut in the calked rim of the cup to ensure that the mitre faces forwards. Heraldry: The arms and crest are those of BRATHWAITE, for John Brathwaite Esq. (1722-1800). The finial on the cover, ‘out of a ducal coronet a mitre’, is the crest of the Diocese of Durham. Hallmarks: Fully marked on the underside of the cup’s foot: ‘PS’ (Paul Storr*), lion passant (sterling), ‘U’ (1795/6), monarch’s head (duty mark), and leopard’s head (London); and part marked on the flange of the cover: ‘PS’, monarch’s head, lion passant, and ‘U’. *Arthur Grimwade: London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, London, 1990, p 162, no 2234 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
NOTES ON THE DESIGN OF THE CUP Paul Storr (1771-1844) learned about simple shapes, restrained decoration, and the use of applied or engraved medallions in his early career in the workshop of the Swedish silversmith Andrew Fogelberg of Church Street, Soho; and he would have been familiar with drawings of the classical urns excavated in southern Italy, which influenced the design of many English funerary monuments as well as furnishings, silver and ceramics. Covered cups with ovoid or ellipsoidal bodies had been popular for over twenty years before this example. Thomas Heming supplied one for George III to present to his goddaughter Catherine Charlotte Cathcart at her christening on 3 August 1770. [1] Either the gift arrived late, or it was hallmarked after its presentation, as it bears London hallmarks for 1775/6. Nineteen years later Storr was asked to make a second cup for the King to present to Catherine’s younger brother, George Cathcart, who was christened in May 1794. These two cups are strikingly similar to Anglesey Abbey’s cup of 1795/6; the only notable differences being that the christening cups have a royal crown as their finial, and they are applied with medallions engraved with the royal arms of George III and of Charles Cathcart, 9th Baron Cathcart. [2] Another version of this form was created by the entrepreneur and ceramicist Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), who mounted a coconut in silver-gilt, suspending two Jasperware medallions from the swags. An elegant but more elaborate version, made by William Holmes in 1776/7, has an ellipsoidal body with ribbed sides, every fourth rib applied with a graduating line of bell flowers, the rim applied with an Adamesque border of stylised anthemions, entwined snake handles, and a pineapple finial. [3] [1] Sotheby’s sale: Royal & Noble, London, 17 January 2024, lot 35 [2] Victoria & Albert Museum, London: accession number 815:1, 2-1891 [3] Michael Clayton: The Collector’s Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, London, 1971, p 101, fig 215 HERALDRY John Brathwaite was born in Barbados. He was an agent in London for the island ‘for many years’ until his death in 1800, when he left his estates there to descendants of his sisters. An important memorial by John Flaxman was raised in his memory in St. Martin’s Church, Epsom; another in St. Michael’s Cathedral, Bridgetown, also by Flaxman, was paid for by the Barbados Council. The inscription on the cup explains its presentation. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts operated in the North American and other British colonies. It was initially incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 with the intention of encouraging Anglican Christian ministry to British people overseas. [1] At the head of its committee were the Archbishops of Canterbury and York along with other bishops and laymen. The Barbados Committee was established in 1710 on the death of Christopher Codrington, when his plantations in Barbados came into their ownership. Their aim was to support the Society and to fund the creation of Codrington College to train missionaries on the island; it opened in 1745 and still exists. In 1780 Codrington College suffered severe hurricane damage and the Society had to let the estates for a time. The damage and the downturn in economic climate led to the college being closed until 1797, a period during which Brathwaite became involved. He paid a rent of £500 per annum to the Society and at the end of ten years returned the estates free of debt and in credit. It is not known exactly why the Bishop of Durham’s mitre was chosen to form the finial, but it was probably due to the influence of one of Durham’s bishops who sat on the SPG committee. The most likely candidate is Thomas Thurlow (1737-1791), who was bishop when Braithwaite was appointed after the great financial distress which followed the 1780 hurricane. But there were also chaplains to Durham’s bishops who had connections to Barbados; one, the Rev John Rotheram (1725-1789), had been an assistant at Codrington College whilst his brother, Thomas, was a professor there. Thurlow’s successor, Shute Barrington (1734-1826), was William Wilberforce’s ‘principal episcopal patron’, who described him as ‘a very sun, the centre of an entire system’. Bishop Barrington denounced the slave trade in his 1775 sermon for the SPG as ‘a traffic as inhuman in the mode of carrying it on, as it is unjustifiable in its principal’. [2] The Society relinquished its ownership of plantations following the Slavery Abolition Act, 1833. [1] Correspondence of The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts: http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=society-for-the-propagation-of-the-gospel [2] EA Varley: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ttps://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1534?rskey=vrshdz&result=2, 2009 Jane Ewart, 2025 Heraldry by Gale Glynn
Provenance
John Brathwaite David Black of 1 Burlington Gardens, London W1, sold the cup to Lord Fairhaven on 11 February 1948 for £100, Invoice 1088 (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
Paul Storr (1771-1844), goldsmith
References
Hartop 2015: Christopher Hartop, Art in Industry: The Silver of Paul Storr, London 2015 Hartop 2005: Christopher Hartop, Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell and Bridge 1797-1843, (John Adamson, Cambridge, 2005) Ellis, 1999: Myrtle Ellis. 'Huttleston Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) as a collector of English silver.' Apollo, 1999 Brett 1986: Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby’s Directory of Silver, London and New York 1986 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 Penzer 1954: N.M. Penzer, Paul Storr 1771–1844 Silversmith & Goldsmith, London 1954