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Four dessert dishes, one formerly an epergne dish

Paul de Lamerie (1688 - 1751) and Frederick Kandler (d.1778).

Category

Silver

Date

1724 - 1767

Materials

Silver-gilt

Measurements

5 x 33.7 x 29.6 cm

Place of origin

London

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Collection

Ickworth, Suffolk

NT 852064

Summary

Set of four silver-gilt dessert dishes, one a former dish from an epergne by Paul de Lamerie, London, 1724/5 and three copies by Frederick Kandler, London, one 1751/2 and two 1766/7. Each oval dish is raised and has a series of narrow ribs around the perimeter, the compartments thereby created being flat-chased and engraved with foliate strapwork panels, alternately decorated with stylised leaves on matted grounds and trelliswork. There is a cast gadrooned rim and four cast triangular handles, each with a three-dimensional classical bust against an irregular shell and scrolling foliage, the backgrounds matted. The base of each dish is fitted with a seamed bezel and four scroll feet. Heraldry: The centre of each dish is engraved with the quartered shield, supporters and motto of the 2nd Earl of Bristol in an ermine mantling and beneath an earl’s coronet. Hallmarks: No. 1 - Lion’s head erased, Britannia, maker’s mark ‘LA’ star and closed crown above fleur-de-lis below (third mark, unregistered – see Susan Hare (ed.), Paul de Lamerie, At the Sign of the Golden Ball, London, 1990), date letter ‘I’; No. 2 - Fully marked on the underside with date letter ‘q’, lion passant, maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, 1990, no. 691) and leopard’s head; Nos. 3 & 4 - Both fully marked on their undersides with the date letter ‘L’, leopard’s head, lion passant and maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Grimwade 1990, no. 692). Scratchweights: ‘N1 [/] 31=7’; ‘N 2 [/] 32=3’; ‘No. 3 [/] 32=10’; ‘No. 4 [/] 32=9’

Full description

The earliest of the four dishes (No. 1, Paul de Lamerie, 1724/5) would have fitted into the top of the tureen of the Scarsdale epergne (see NT 852084) as an alternative to the cover, in the same way as does the dish of the intact Kirkleatham epergne at Temple Newsam.[1] Its fluted form suggests the circular salad dishes of the early eighteenth century which were also used for dessert and thus sometimes called strawberry dishes.[2] It would have been put in place once the initial courses of the meal had been completed, and been mounded with fruit or sweetmeats along with the vanished epergne saucers which would have projected on arms and been decorated to match. Glass liners were often provided for such dishes and saucers, protecting the silver and its intricate Régence decoration from the acidic fruit. These liners accompanied all of George Wickes’ epergnes of the 1730s and 40s, Viscount Duncannon being provided with ‘8 cutt saucers’ at 16s in 1740 whilst the ill-fated Admiral Byng received ‘2 ovell & 8 round Glass Saucers’ with his ‘Epargne with 4 branches’ in 1749.[3] It is to be hoped that at some point examples of these glass liners will be identified. An alternative dish shape was the extended octagon, as on the Williams epergne, but oval seems to have been more popular and to have persisted longer, outlasting even the inclusion of tureens in epergnes. A fine example with a frothily rococo cast border and wavy fluting is, for instance, found as late as 1753 on an epergne by Eliza Godfrey.[4] Paul de Lamerie seems only ever to have used the oval form and on at least one other epergne dish, that made for the 6th Earl of Mountrath in 1737, he combined it again with the prominent cast handles employed for Lord Scarsdale thirteen years earlier.[5] These handles, in quadruplicate, are also to be found on an inkstand of 1732 by de Lamerie [6] and it is possible that the same moulds were employed when the Scarsdale dish was duplicated for the 2nd Earl of Bristol by Frederick Kandler in 1751 (No. 2) and again in 1766 when another pair was added (Nos. 3 & 4). The whole set was then gilded to serve as dessert dishes and this use resulted in the miscomprehension in the twentieth century, starting with P. A. S. Phillips in his 1935 work on Paul de Lamerie, that the piece had been intended for that purpose from the beginning.[7] The same mistake has previously been made in relation to a number of other remnant dishes from epergnes, such as that of 1734 by de Lamerie in the Ashmolean Museum which still has its six accompanying saucers.[8] Some, like that at Ickworth, retain the bezel which allowed the dish to fit securely onto the tureen.[9] The three copies (Nos. 2-4) are superb pieces of craftsmanship and are barely distinguishable from the original, being within 1 ½ ounces of the same weight and even having a bezel which would have been redundant if not in use with the tureen of the epergne. Only on very close inspection can the slightest of variances be detected such as in the execution of the engraved borders and in the form of the panel and scroll feet. The four cast handles are precisely the same size which would suggest that Kandler had access to Lamerie’s moulds. Had he needed to take new ones from the original dish the copies thus produced would be expected to be fractionally smaller. It is possible that the epergne was not melted when the first copy (No. 2) was made in 1751/2, and as it would have had a cover for the central tureen as well as the dish the latter would have been available for alternative use. This is typical of the 2nd Earl’s thrifty and measured approach to the augmentation of his plate as he thereby gained two dishes for the fashion cost of one. The gilding penetrates the engraved lines on both this dish and its Lamerie pair, suggesting that they were initially left white, perhaps until 1766 when the final two were added (Nos. 3 & 4). Thus they could have been intended to form part of the plate for the first courses of the meal, acting as salad dishes which, with their ribbing, they resemble. They may even have still been laid on the table with the epergne, perhaps flanking it, up to its demise c.1754. The final pair of copies, added by Kandler in 1766/7, made up a set of four. It was probably at this point that all of them were gilded and turned over to use as part of Lord Bristol’s now extensive dessert service. With dessert silver increasingly gilded, the number of dishes specifically allocated to the course increased. Thus in 1763 the Earl of Hertford received nine silver-gilt fruit dishes for his embassy to France, two years later his successor, the Duke of Richmond, had twelve and in 1783 the Duke of Manchester, on being dispatched to the same court, was allocated ’20 Scollop’d Dest. [dessert] Dishes’.[10] Lord Bristol, from 1766, had twelve available and he was thus equipping himself for entertaining on an up-to-date ambassadorial scale whilst on the vice-regal throne of Ireland. He was also assiduously keeping up with the rapidly changing dining fashions and he continued to do so, commissioning a further eight silver-gilt dishes in 1769–70 (NT 852067.5-8 and NT 852101.5-8), bringing his total up to that subsequently to be received by the Duke of Manchester. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator December 2020 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 13, 28 & 85, pp. 84-6, 106 & 173-4]. Notes: [1] James Lomax, British Silver at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall, 1992, pp. 88-9, ill. [2] See Timothy Schroder, British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, 2009, cat. 86, pp. 240-242 for a clear summary of the current understanding of fluted salad dishes. [3] National Art Library, Garrard Ledgers, VAM 1 1735–40, f. 193 and VAM 3 1747–50, f. 83. [4] Christie’s 15 June 1977, lot 116. [5] Christie’s 17 December 1986, lot 240 and Hare 1990, cat. 87, pp. 134-5, ill. [6] Sir Charles Jackson, Illustrated History of English Plate, 1911, p. 904, fig. 1181. [7] P. A. S. Phillips, Paul de Lamerie, 1935, p. 82. [8] Schroder 2009 (see note 2), cat. 103, pp. 279-81. Schroder has identified the set as being from an epergne but notes that they were previously described as dessert dishes. [9] See, for example, that of 1742 by John Hugh Le Sage supplied to the 4th Marquess of Tweeddale as Secretary of State for Scotland by the Jewel Office as part of a surtout, sold at Christie’s, 23 March 1966, lot 23. [10] The National Archives, LC 9/45, Jewel Office Delivery Book 1732–93, ff. 207, 238 and 317.

Provenance

No. 1 - Nicholas Leke, 4th Earl of Scarsdale (d. 1736); 1st Earl of Bristol (bought, as part of an epergne, 1737, at the Scarsdale sale); 2nd Earl of Bristol who added nos. 2-4; by descent to the 4th Marquess of Bristol; accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties in 1956 and transferred to the National Trust.

Credit line

Ickworth, the Bristol Collection (National Trust)

Makers and roles

Paul de Lamerie (1688 - 1751) and Frederick Kandler (d.1778)., goldsmiths Paul de Lamerie (1688 - London 1751) , goldsmith Frederick Kandler, goldsmith

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