Tumbler
Paolo Antonio Paroletto
Category
Silver
Date
c. 1756 - 1800
Materials
Silver
Measurements
8.6 cm (height); 8.6 cm (diam.); 145 g (weight)
Place of origin
Turin
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852090
Summary
Tumbler, silver, by Paolo Antonio Paroletto, Turin, circa 1756. The trumpet-shaped tumbler is raised and has a flared, thickened lip below which are engraved three pairs of concentric lines. Heraldry: The front 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. The style of engraving is Italian (see NT 852078).
Full description
Tumblers were primarily used for spirits such as brandy and were often part of the travelling equipment of the wealthy in the eighteenth century.[1] As such they were for personal use and Lord Bristol would presumably have kept this with him on his regular forays to court as British Envoy in Turin and subsequently as ambassador in Madrid, on the arduous journey to Spain in 1758 and on his rushed exit in the first days of 1762. This tumbler, like that of Lady Hervey (NT 852089), is not recorded in any of the nineteenth-century plate lists. It is likely therefore, that it was removed to Ireland by the Earl-Bishop – and may even have been used by him during his travels on the Continent – and reacquired for Ickworth by Theodora, Marchioness of Bristol in the early twentieth century. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator May 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 60, p. 146] Notes: [1] Timothy Schroder, British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 2009, p. 64 and G. Bernard Hughes, Small Antique Silverware, New York 1957, p. 115. Exhibited: Treasures from National Trust Houses, Christie’s, London, 1957–8, cat. 175.
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)
Marks and inscriptions
Underside: Hallmarks: assay mark of Bartolomeo Pagliani (in office 1753–75), the Savoy cross in a shield flanked by ‘B P’ with a closed crown above, and the maker’s mark of Paolo Antonio Paraletto (c.1715–after 1759), St Francis Xavier in the form of a pilgrim above the letters ‘P P A’ (Gianfranco Fina & Luca Mana, Argenti Sabauda del XVIII Secolo, 2012, p. 248, ill., & pp. 235-6, fig. 43).
Makers and roles
Paolo Antonio Paroletto, goldsmith