Sideboard dish
probably Joseph Steward II (1731-1784)
Category
Silver
Date
1759 - 1760
Materials
Sterling silver
Measurements
4.6 x 41.1 cm; 1145 g (Weight)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516514
Summary
A sideboard dish in historicist taste, silver (sterling), mark of ‘IS’ probably for Joseph Steward II, London, 1759/60. The large circular dish is raised from a sheet of silver, and has a wide border round the shallow central well. The border is highly embossed and chased with a lion, bull, tiger and wolf, between a tulip, rose, carnation and sunflower, against a background embossed foliage. Amongst the foliage lines of dots punched from above form scrolls. Visible on the underside of the dish are some lines of small dots, which acted as guidelines for the embosser when hammering the metal to create the animals and flowers. The rim of the dish is folded over to reinforce it. Arms are engraved in the centre. Heraldry: The arms, crest, motto and supporters are those of STANHOPE, as used by the Earls of Chesterfield. Scratch weight: ’73:0 pr’ suggesting that the dish was one of a pair as the scratch weight is approximately double the current weight of 36 Troy oz 4 pennyweights
Full description
NOTE ON DISHES WITH DECORATED BORDERS Highly embossed silver with finely chased detailing was fashionable in northern Europe in the mid-17th century. The wide borders around fruit stands and sideboard dishes provided the chasers with a large canvas to demonstrate their skill at creating the illusion of three-dimensional objects in metal. Flowers, particularly the fashionable tulip, were popular, as were cherubs, scrolling foliage and animals, either hunting or exotic. Charles II, returning from exile in Europe, is often credited with bringing this style of silver to Britain. However, it is known from contemporary writings that such dishes and fruit stands existed in England prior to 1660, few survived the melting pots of the Civil War. Fruit stands are dishes (sometimes called salvers) with a trumpet-shaped foot. They were used to support a similarly decorated porringer, or as a stand to display fruit, or – like the salver on foot with only a simple moulded or gadroon border – by servants to carry a full drinking glass to a seated diner. A rare London hallmarked example of 1658/9, with a border chased with varieties of fruit, bears the mark of ‘RF’, possibly for Richard Farmer. [1 & 2] Post Restoration examples are more common. A gift of six fruit stands was presented on behalf of Charles II to Tsar Alexy Mikhaylovich in 1664. Three survive in the Armoury of the Moscow Kremlin Museums: marked in London in 1663/4, they have borders of flowers alternating with animals between scrolling foliage, which bear similarities to the decoration on Anglesey Abbey’s dish. [3] By 1700 the fashion for simpler, often heavier, silver prevailed, and this style of decoration in high relief was no longer desirable. It is, therefore, highly unusual to find a large sideboard dish made in the mid-18th century in historicist taste. Although, as John Culme points out in Attitudes to Old Plate 1750-1900, at that time a small number of antiquaries and collectors were starting to show an interest in antique silver. The scratched weight, ’73:0 pr’, suggests there were two dishes, so it seems likely that the dish was decorated at the date it was made and hallmarked, and was as a pair to a 17th century example. [1] Timothy Schroder: The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles, 1988, pp 101-3 [2] David M Mitchell: Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: Their Lives and Marks, London, 2017, p 451 [3] Olga Dmitrieva and Natalya Abromova (ed): Britannia & Muscovy: English Silver at the Court of the Tsars, Yale, 2006, pp 120-1 [4] John Culme: The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths Jewellers & Allied Traders 1838-1914, Woodbridge, 1987, pp xvi-xxxvi HERALDRY It is not possible to identify the bearer of these arms with certainty. If the engraving was copied from a dish produced in the 1660s, then it could be for either of two younger sons of the first Earl of Chesterfield. The Hon Arthur Stanhope (1627-1694) was the 11th but by 1660 the only surviving son of Philip 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1627-1694) by his first wife. The first Earl's eldest son, Sir Henry, Lord Stanhope died in 1634/5, the year his only son and heir Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl, was born. Arthur married in 1655, and his great grandson became 5th Earl of Chesterfield. Arthur was the heir-presumptive to the earldom until 1673. Although the family was strongly Royalist, Arthur was active against local Cavaliers during the Interregnum and stood 'well with the Protector'. In the absence abroad of the 2nd Earl, his nephew, he obtained a chancery decree and seized the whole estate. After the Restoration he stood for Parliament but did not pursue a notable career. His great-niece met him in Nottingham in the autumn of 1689, looking ill, pious and very melancholy. ‘I hope the thoughts of his going to heaven do not trouble him’, commented Chesterfield savagely. The Hon Alexander Stanhope, (1638-1707), was the only child of the 1st Earl's second marriage. His son James (1673-1720) was created 1st Earl Stanhope in 1718, with a grant of different supporters and the Stanhope arms differenced with a crescent. He purchased the Chevening estate in 1728. However, if the arms are contemporary with the date of the hallmark, there were three Stanhope earldoms with similar coats of arms, crests and mottoes: Chesterfield, Stanhope and Harrington. Minor variations in the arms are: (i) different supporters to those of Chesterfield as exemplified by this dish, (ii) the use of cadency marks for the earldom of Stanhope, and (iii) a reversal of the positions of the two supporters for the earls of Harrington. On this dish the presence of supporters without a corresponding coronet of rank precludes a living earl. The motto is a Stanhope motto, suggesting the owner was one of the two men who were closely related to Philip Dormer, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773). Arthur Charles Stanhope (1715-70) was a direct descendant of the 1st Earl of Chesterfield through the Revd Michael Stanhope DD, Canon of Windsor (1681-1737). His son Philip (1755-1815) inherited the earldom in 1773. Philip Stanhope (1732-68), only child of the 4th Earl. As an illegitimate son he might have used differenced arms. He was sometime Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Dresden. He appears to have had two illegitimate sons whose mother he married in the year before his death. He was the recipient of the celebrated letters written by his father on an almost daily basis from 1737 and published posthumously. The advice in them had generally been ignored! Jane Ewart, 2025 Heraldry by Gale Glynn
Provenance
(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)
Marks and inscriptions
On the underside of the dish: Hallmarks: leopard’s head (London), ‘D’ (1759/60), ‘IS’ (probably Joseph Steward II*), and lion passant (sterling) *Arthur Grimwade: London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, London, 1990, p 262, no 3681 The mark ‘IS’ is struck over another mark, which is most likely the same mark, as the lower section of the ‘S’ is visible On the underside of the dish: Scratch weight: '73:0 pr' On the underside of the dish: Old NT inventory number in white paint 'AA/S/123'
Makers and roles
probably Joseph Steward II (1731-1784), goldsmith