Cup and cover
Robert Garrard I (1758 - 1818)
Category
Silver
Date
1803 - 1804
Materials
Silver
Measurements
45.4 x 29.4 x 19.8 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516452
Summary
A two-handled cup and cover (one of a pair), mark of Robert Garrard I, London, 1803/4. The tall vase-shaped cup is raised and rests on a cast foot in the form of three dolphins on scallop shells between fans of bullrushes; their tails entwined to form the calyx. The lower third of the body is embossed with partially matted stylised fluting. Both sides are engraved with a coat of arms, supporters and motto on ermine mantling beneath a baron’s coronet. The rim had a moulded border. Bullrushes with their leaves stretch up the lower half of the cast reeded handles, which loop up to join the body below the rim with an applied scallop shell. The cover is raised and applied with a narrow flange of sheet silver. A border of embossed scales encircles the flat top, which is applied with a large cast model of three dolphins spouting bubbles; their tails entwined to form the finials; between each dolphin is a festoon of willow leaves and a large scallop shell. Heraldry: The arms, motto and supporters beneath a baron’s coronet are those of ROBINSON quartering WEDDELL for Thomas Philip Weddell Robinson (1781-1859) as 3rd Baron Grantham, later de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey.
Full description
Thomas Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham, appears to have celebrated attaining his majority by commissioning a large quantity of silver in 1803. Besides the order for the pair of covered cups, Robert Garrard supplied a set of four silver wine coolers, again with dolphin pedestal bases. The coolers were sold in November 1973 by the dealer Hugh Jessop, who described them as ‘exceptionally fine … the pedestal base formed by four dolphins, with intertwined bodies, their tails supporting a large shell with forms the base of the campana-shaped bow which is plain except for a bold gadroon type edges and with an applied draped mantling comprising coronet, supporters and motto surrounding an engraved coat of arms, the two side handles to each cooler in the form of naturalist shells … weight 512 Troy oz.’ It is possible that the strong aquatic element in the design of these pieces (namely the dolphins and wavy bands possibly representing the sea) reference the financial acumen of the 1st Baron Grantham and its benefit to his distant relatives (see below). HERALDRY Thomas Robinson succeeded his father as 3rd Baron Grantham in 1786 at the age of five. Later, several properties and titles devolved to him, including Newby Hall near Ripon in 1792. In 1803 (at the age of twenty-one), he assumed the name and arms of Weddell; the cups would have been acquired at this time. In 1833 he inherited the earldom of de Grey, as 2nd Earl. Lord de Grey’s ancestral inheritance dated back to two seventeenth-century marriages. Margaret Robinson married William Weddell of Berwick; her grandson Richard Elcock changed his name to Weddell on acquiring Newby Hall in 1748. In 1679 Margaret’s nephew Sir William Robinson married Mary Aislabie, whose family’s estate at Studley Royal was inherited by Lord de Grey in the 1840s. Their son Thomas Robinson (1695-1770, created Baron Grantham in 1761) held the lucrative post of Paymaster to the Navy and was a successful South Sea Bubble speculator, exiting before the crash. Lord Grantham was thus second cousin to Richard Elcock Weddell, who had died by 1762 when his son, William Weddell (1736-92) commenced a Grand Tour. The collection William built up at Newby Hall was spectacular; he bequeathed it, together with the house, to his third cousin once removed Thomas 3rd Lord Grantham (1781-1859), who was by then aged eleven. In 1805, now known as Thomas Robinson Weddell, he married Henrietta Cole (1784-1848) daughter of William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen. As Lord Grantham and later as Lord de Grey, Thomas had widespread interests. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1806, was Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire 1818–59, Yeomanry ADC to King William IV 1831-37 and to Queen Victoria 1837-59. He was First Lord of the Admiralty 1834-35, President of the Society of Architects 1834-59, a Privy Councillor in 1834, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1841-44, Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841, and Knight of the Garter 1844. Lord Houghton described him as ‘a nobleman of great wealth and fine temper, with some perceptions of heart, but perhaps a little too much of the beau sabreur.’ As an amateur architect much of the design of the so-called ‘Regency dining room’ at Newby Hall is attributed to Thomas. In 1833 he inherited Wrest Park, Beds, through his maternal aunt, together with her titles: the barony of Lucas of Crudwell and the earldom of de Grey (as 2nd Earl). He replaced Wrest Park with a new house, the foundation stone for which was laid in 1834. Thomas’s younger brother Frederick was created Earl of Ripon in 1833 (having briefly been Prime Minister 1827-28); both brothers died in 1859, Thomas and Henrietta’s son and heir had died in 1831. The barony went to Thomas’s elder daughter (by then Countess Cowper); his younger daughter Mary (1809-92) inherited Newby Hall which subsequently went, through her grand-daughter’s marriage, to the Compton family. Thomas’s nephew inherited the de Grey and Ripon earldoms. Jane Ewart, 2025 Heraldry by Gale Glynn
Provenance
Thomas Philip de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey and 3rd Lord Grantham (1781-1859) William Henry Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough (1855-1945) (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
Robert Garrard I (1758 - 1818), goldsmith
References
Ellis, 1999: Myrtle Ellis. 'Huttleston Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) as a collector of English silver.' Apollo, 1999