Four round waiters
Frederick Kandler
Category
Silver
Date
1766 - 1767
Materials
Sterling silver
Measurements
3.8 cm (Height); 34.6 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852120
Summary
Four round waiters, sterling silver, marked by Frederick Kandler, London, 1766/7. The waiters, which have no feet, have shallow circular wells and narrow rims with shaped hexafoil moulded and gadrooned borders which are cast and applied. Heraldry: Each waiter is engraved at its centre with the quartered arms of the Hanoverian monarchs (pre-1801) within the Garter and flanked by the royal supporters, the motto below and a full-faced helmet and imperial crown above. The Garter is within a rococo cartouche and a rose and a thistle rise above each of the supporters. Hallmarks: The waiters are fully marked on their undersides with date letter ‘L’, lion passant, leopard’s head and maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, London 1990, no. 692). Scratchweights: ‘41=7 [/] No= 1’; ‘41=1 [/] No= 2’; ‘41=16 [/] No= 3’; ‘41=7 [/] No= 4’.
Full description
These pieces, like the plateau and bottle stands (NT 852091 & 852058), were probably bought out of George Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol’s income as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1766-7) and hence they are engraved with the royal arms. The engraving is superbly executed and survives in excellent condition. The making of these pieces was also highly accomplished, since they do not have feet and thus have to be perfectly flat so as not to wobble on a table top. They are an unusual form and exactly how they were intended to be used is not clear. With such care lavished on their central engraving it seems unlikely that they would have been employed in the same fashion as the oval and other shallow dishes, all of which have the arms on their rims, and their lack of feet means that they would have been difficult to lift from the table during the meal. It is thus more likely that they were intended for waiting and could be placed on a side table with glasses on them, or they could even have been part of an intended buffet display which the Earl would have needed in his new, semi-regal state and does not appear to have owned previously. They are described as waiters in the 1811 plate list.[1] James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator June 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 82, p. 171.] Note: [1] Suffolk Record Office, 941/75/1, list of plate of the 5th Earl (later 1st Marquess) of Bristol 1811-29. Exhibition: British Week, Milan and Frankfurt, 1965.
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
Frederick Kandler, goldsmith