Eight pincushion-shaped dessert dishes
Simon Le Sage and Frederick Kandler (d.1778)
Category
Silver
Date
1758 - 1770
Materials
Silver-gilt
Measurements
2.5 x 23.8 x 21.3 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852067
Summary
Eight pincushion-shaped dessert dishes, sterling silver, gilded, four marked by Simon Le Sage, London, 1758/9 and four by Frederick Kandler, London, 1769/70. The dishes are raised into an oblong form with concave sides and inverted corners. They have cast moulded and gadrooned borders applied to the rims. Heraldry: The centre of each dish is engraved with the quartered arms of the Hanoverian monarchs (pre-1801) within the Garter and beneath an imperial crown flanked by the letters G R. Hallmarks: All of the dishes are marked on their undersides, four with date letter ‘C’, lion passant, leopard’s head and maker’s mark ‘S∙L’ in italics with a cup above and mullet below (Arthur Grimwade 1990, no. 2576) and four with maker’s mark FK in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Grimwade 1990, no. 692), lion passant, leopard’s head and date letter ‘O’. Scratchweights: ‘No. = 1 [/] 21 = 5’; ‘No. = 2 [/] 23 = 8’; ‘No. 3 [/] 22 = 9’; ‘No. = 4 [/] 25 = 5; ‘No 5 [/] 21=17’; ‘No 6 [/] 22=1’; ‘No =7 [/] 21=11’; ‘No 8 [/] 21=16’.
Full description
The four dishes of 1758, in spite of the date and royal arms indicating that they were part of the 2nd Earl of Bristol’s official grant of silver on being appointed ambassador to Spain, do not appear in the Jewel Office records and must represent some part of the machinations whereby Lord Bristol avoided having to pay the goldsmith for fashion charges beyond the official limits. Unlike the candelabra (NT 852977) and the soup plates (NT 852125) there is insufficient physical and archival evidence even to surmise about exactly what was entailed in this case. Deep dishes of this form began to appear around 1750, almost certainly deriving from France (see NT 852094), and these are early examples.[1] Though they might have been used to serve nuts, fresh or candied fruit and other elements of the dessert [2] their deep sides made them particularly well suited to stewed or puréed fruit, prepared with sugar syrup. This is probably what led to the type becoming known as compote dishes, often anglicised to ‘comport’. The earliest such reference in the Wickes and Parker and Wakelin ledgers is amongst purchases by the 4th Viscount Howe in October, 1766: ‘4 Hatt [triform] & 4 Pincushion Comport Dishes’ weighing 162oz and costing £62 2s. The 6th Earl of Coventry, in April 1770, acquired four each of pincushion and ‘Round Gadroon’ ‘Compote Dishes’, almost certainly of the same form as the Ickworth set and of a comparable weight at 193oz in total.[3] Other shapes produced were ovals and triangles, and comport dishes were used for both dessert and, ungilded, for the earlier courses. By the end of the century the latter type were often being supplied with covers, as those by Paul Storr of 1795 at Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland (NT 1656387). The four additions of 1769 match exactly those of 1758. As with the dish covers (NT 852110) they may have been exchanged for some of the ambassadorial plate, hence the royal arms. Certainly, the payment to Frederick Kandler which must relate to them and four round dishes (NT 852101.5-8), £29 3s on 30 March 1771, would not have been sufficient on its own.[4] They are likely to have cost at least 10s 6d per ounce, totalling £90 or so.[5] For the associated round dishes see NT 852101. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator June 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 77 & 89, pp. 164-5 and 178] Notes: [1] A pair of round dishes of this form by George Methuen, 1748, were sold by Sotheby’s Zurich, 22 November 1978, lot 47. [2] See Sara Paston-Williams, The Art of Dining, London 1993, pp. 260-1, for a discussion of dessert. [3] National Art Library, Garrard Ledgers, VAM 7 1765-75, ff. 31 and 59. [4] Barclays Group Archives, Goslings ledgers, 130/43, f. 97. [5] The Jewel Office paid 10 6d for Lord Bristol’s silver-gilt in 1758. See The National Archives, LC 9/48, Jewel Office Plate Book 1728–67, f. 166. Exhibited: Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 1959; Ideal Home Exhibition, London, 1960; Silver from National Trust Houses, Treasurer’s House, York Festival, 1969.
Provenance
George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol (1721-75); by descent to the 4th Marquess of Bristol (1863-1951); 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
Simon Le Sage and Frederick Kandler (d.1778), goldsmiths Simon Le Sage, goldsmith Frederick Kandler, goldsmith