Four small round dishes
Frederick Kandler
Category
Silver
Date
1754 - 1755
Materials
Silver
Measurements
2.5 cm (Height); 27.3 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852121.2
Summary
Four small round dishes, sterling silver, by Frederick Kandler, London, 1754/5. The dishes are raised with shallow circular wells, broad rims and cast shaped borders with twelve gadrooned lobes each having a central acanthus leaf. At four of the intersections between the lobes are cast scallop shells with pearl bands and flanking foliate scrolls. Heraldry: The rims of the dishes are 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: The dishes are fully marked on the underside of their rims with the lion passant, date letter ‘t’, maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, 1990, no. 691) and leopard’s head. Scratchweights: ‘No=1 [/] 23=13’, ‘No=2 [/] 24=3’, ‘No=3 [/] 24=5’ and ‘No=4 [/] 24=10’
Full description
As with Ickworth’s large oval dishes (NT 852080), sauce boats (NT 852082) and salad dishes (NT 852062), these dishes have cast shells to unite them with the rest of the service. The borders, which are particularly finely modelled, derive from those which emerged in the mid 1740s and were most spectacularly employed on the Leinster dinner service supplied by George Wickes in 1747, though in that case combined with reeding rather than gadrooning.[1] Unlike the handles on the smaller oval dishes at Ickworth, the prominent shells on the borders of these smaller round dishes have not been scaled down from the larger set (NT 852121.3.1-4) though the gadrooning has been. They are the smallest of all the dishes and might have been used for hors d’oeuvres or for some of the light entremets [2] placed instead of salads and sauces for the third course. On Vincent La Chapelle’s ‘Bill of Fare for a Supper of 15 or 16 Covers’ these included cock’s combs, green peas, duck’s tongues and eggs with gravy. The small round dishes are much worn and were evidently heavily used by the Herveys up to 1951. The scratchweight on dish No. 4 has only been done very lightly and is not engraved as are the others. Presumably it was missed and this might suggest a light scratch was done first by whoever was undertaking the weighing and that engraving followed by someone more specialist. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator February 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 49, p. 133] Notes: [1] The National Archives, LC 9/48, Jewel Office Accounts and Receipts Book 1728-67, ff. 166-8. [2] Entremets from old French means ‘between courses’. See Margaret Visser, The Rituals of Dinner, 1991, pp. 200-1.
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