Summary

120 dinner plates, silver, seventy-two probably by Frederick Kandler, London circa 1751 and forty-eight by Andrea Boucheron and Paolo Antonio Paroletto, Turin, circa 1756. The Kandler plates are, for the most part, reformed from earlier pieces. Each plate is raised and has a shallow circular well, a broad rim and shaped and moulded cinquefoil borders with applied gadrooning. Their borders are of the same pattern as the soup plates (NT 852126). Heraldry: The rim of each plate 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 engraving on the Turin plates is Italian (see NT 852078). On the reverse of many of the English plates are vestiges of the engraved arms of the 1st Earl of Bristol, as executed in 1703 and altered in May 1721 when the baron’s coronets were replaced with those of an earl. Plate nos. 9, 12, 23, 32 and 33 have particularly clear remnants and the combined evidence of all the plates shows that when turned in they bore the arms of Hervey impaling Felton with the Hervey supporters and motto, as survive only on the 1704 chocolate pot (NT 852070). Hallmarks: Only one of the English plates (NT 852124.1-72), no. 60, bears a mark from the date of manufacture, the maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, 1990, no. 691) for Frederick Kandler. Many of the remainder, however, have vestiges of those of the former pieces from which they were converted c.1751. Most of the Turin plates (NT 852124.73-120) have either the maker’s mark of ‘VA’ in monogram beneath a crown for Andrea Boucheron (1693–1760) (Gianfranco Fina & Luca Mana, Argenti Sabauda del XVIII Secolo, 2012, p. 222, fig. 8) or that of St Francis Xavier in the form of a pilgrim above the letters ‘P P A’ for Paolo Antonio Paroletto (c.1715–after 1759) (Fina and Mana, pp. 235-6, fig. 43). They also bear various Turin assay marks. Details are given under the entry for each plate. Scratchweights: Each plate bears a scratched number from 1 to 120 and a weight. In the case of the Italian plates, the initial weight has been crossed through and a revised figure applied in its stead. On some of the English plates old scratchweights are still evident, relating to the former pieces from which they were converted c. 1751. Details are given under the entry for each plate.

Full description

ENGLISH PLATES John Hervey (the future 1st Earl of Bristol) bought three dozen plates in 1696 and a further two dozen ‘nurld’ (gadrooned) the following year.[1] In 1703 some of these may have been amongst the 1,236 ounces of old plate sent to the banker-goldsmith James Chamber in part exchange for ‘22 new Dishes & 3 Doz: of Plates weighed in all 1668ou:05dwtt at 10d ffashion’. As no knurls are mentioned it is likely that these plates conformed to the simplicity which was then predominant and at most they would have had a moulded rim. Large numbers of this severe form survive, including those of 1728 by Peter Archambo at Dunham Massey (NT 932539).[2] In France, under the influence of the Régence, the borders of dinner plates began to be given a wavy or lobed shape in the 1720s, thereby achieving a greater richness of effect as can be seen in a fine hexafoil example of 1725 by Paul Solaine of Paris and a set of six with cinquefoil borders of 1727 by an unknown Parisian maker.[3] It was these two variants on the same theme that eventually triumphed across Europe and remained in favour for 150 years. Their progress in England was slow, however, and the simple circular form, occasionally gadrooned, remained standard until the late 1730s.[4] What finally tipped the scales is not known but it may have been the impression made by the tables of the more Francophile amongst the nobility, such as the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, or those of foreign diplomats, aided by the illustrations in the oft-reprinted cookery book of Lord Chesterfield’s erstwhile chef, Vincent La Chapelle.[5] A flood of plates in the new style appeared in the years around 1740, either new-made or altered to suit, and the ledgers of George Wickes bear witness to the fashion taking hold. The four dozen plates and twenty-two dishes of the dinner service provided to Everard Fawkener in late 1735 must, at 6s 3½d per ounce, have been simple and circular whereas Sir Jacob Bouverie, 3rd Bt’s five dozen plates accompanying ‘18 Shape Dishes’ at 7s 2d an ounce in February 1738 are very likely to have been of the new form.[6] Over the next fifteen years large numbers of plates and dishes were sent in to be altered, 1743 being especially busy. Lord Montfort was billed for nine dozen plates and thirty-three dishes in February, George Brown for five dozen and fourteen in March and Lord Tyrawley for six dozen and eighteen in May. That was a total of 240 plates in four months, all charged at 1s 2d per ounce fashion plus duty on the knurls at 2s to 2s 8½ d per plate.[7] Other refashionings were prompted by inheritance, as was the case with the 5th Earl of Coventry in 1751 and the 4th Earl of Scarborough in 1752, the rate for making the alterations remaining the same.[8] Both those earls, who were young and fashionable, sent their plate to be upgraded within months of inheriting the family estates and the same was to be the case with George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol. His grandfather died on 20 January 1751 and his first tranche of new and altered silver was paid for on 29 July 1752, costing £263 13s 5d.[9] That is very likely to have included the dinner plates, as the Wickes ledgers reveal that they and the dishes were almost invariably the first elements to be dealt with, such major pieces as tureens following on later. Frederick Kandler, to whom the Earl turned to undertake the work, was faced with the dilemma of many of the plates having hallmarks on their fronts, as had been the practice at the beginning of the century, and he was compelled to essentially turn them inside out. He is very likely to have charged the same 1s 2d for fashion as George Wickes but whether he also billed Lord Bristol for the duty on the knurls is not known. If he did he may not have passed it on to the Treasury, his careful preservation of so many of the old hallmarks in spite of substantial reworking raising strong suspicions that he was duty dodging. Analysis of a selection of the plates carried out at the London Assay Office has confirmed that the bodies are of the Britannia standard and the borders sterling, so the pieces should have been re-marked as the latter.[10] At least, however, he did not use silver significantly below the sterling standard, as had Paul Crespin a decade earlier on Lord Hervey’s dishes (see NT 852095 & 852110). The preservation of old hallmarks is fortunate for historians, provided that the trap is avoided of assuming they give the date of manufacture of the extant pieces. What they can tell us is something about the items that had been turned in to be transformed, helped in the case of the Bristol silver by the detailed accounts of the 1st Earl. Thus some twenty-nine of the thirty-six plates supplied by James Chambers in 1703 can be identified through hallmarks and vestiges of engraving as can the fact that they were made by John Jackson I. Furthermore, the dishes supplied at the same time are also represented amongst these plates and they too were by Jackson, hallmarked for 1702. Several pieces of Lord Hervey’s silver are also present, including plate no. 42, bearing the date letter for 1720, which is likely to have been acquired with the 300 Guineas given to him by his father in October of that year ‘to buy him silver Plates & Dishes when he went to Housekeeping’ following his marriage to Mary Lepel. There are also two plates (nos. 20 and 65) with marks for Paul Crespin and 1725 which may well be connected to Lord Bristol’s payment of £78 on 26 February 1726 to ‘Mr David Willaume ye silver-smith in full for ye dozen of silver plates I gave my son Lord Hervey’. If that connection is correct then it suggests that Crespin was supplying Willaume at this early stage in his career. TURIN PLATES Twelve of the plates are marked by Andrea Boucheron and the other three dozen by Paolo Antonio Paroletto, Lord Bristol’s commission presumably being split between them to produce the large quantity required as quickly as possible. Such collaboration reflects what is known of working relationships between goldsmiths in London (see NT 852069). With which of the eminent pair the Earl dealt is not known but Andrea Boucheron is most likely, given that he was Royal Goldsmith, the introduction probably being made by the King of Sardinia’s chief minister, Giuseppe Osorio. Other goldsmiths appear to have been involved in the manufacture of the plates as well, with two unidentified makers’ marks appearing on some. One, having a monogram incorporating a V under a stylised crown, may perhaps be connected to Boucheron and the other, with the figure of a saint and the initials F P, could be that of a member of the Paroletto family. Lord Bristol was not wanting to embrace Turinese or French styles but merely to augment the plates he already had so as to accommodate larger numbers of guests. The Turinese craftsmen showed their high level of skill in achieving more-or-less exact copies of those produced by Kandler c.1751, the only appreciable, slight difference being the style of the engraving. Even the weight range is comparable to the earlier plates at between fifteen and twenty ounces though the scratchweights applied in Turin had to be amended down subsequently by between one and fifteen pennyweight. There was clearly not a complete grasp of British weights and measures, with some of the pennyweight figures being given in excess of twenty, but the fact that the scratchweights on these plates and the other Turin pieces are all higher than those applied back in England, and not at a consistent percentage either, does tend to imply that the intention was to overcharge Lord Bristol. All in all the difference in weight was 45oz 6dwt and at London prices that would have represented an excessive payment of about £18.[11] Scientific analysis of one of these plates (no. 98) has indicated that the body is of Britannia standard and that the gadrooned border falls well below sterling standard.[12] This suggests that Lord Bristol exchanged at least some old plates that had not succumbed to his campaign of refashioning in the early 1750s. Perhaps these had been retained in their plain, early-eighteenth-century form for the Earl’s day-to-day use. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator February 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 35 & 56, pp. 115-16 & 141-2.] Notes: [1] Suffolk Record Office, 941/46/13, 1st Earl of Bristol’s diary and accounts 1688-1742. Only two dozen plates are specified in the accounts for 1696, on 18 May and 7 November, but the first of these payments was for ‘an other Dozen’ so the £115 worth, unspecified, noted on 6 May must have included an initial purchase of plates. [2] James Lomax and James Rothwell, Country House Silver from Dunham Massey, 2006, cat. 24, pp. 72-3. [3] Faith Dennis, Three Centuries of French Domestic Silver, 1960, vol. II, p. 211, fig. 313 and Christie’s Monte Carlo, 3 December 1989, lot 86. [4] The English seem to have been more comfortable with true polygons, such as the richly engraved hexagonal plates by Charles Kandler of 1730 sold at Christie’s, 27–8 April 1983 and a full octagonal service of 1728–42 by Benjamin and Eliza Godfrey, Sotheby’s 19 October 1961, lot 129. Even such breaks from the pure circle as these, however, were exceptionally rare. [5] James Lomax, British Silver at Temple Newsam, 1992, p. 94, ill. [6] National Art Library, Garrard Ledgers, VAM 1 1735–40, ff. 38 and 142. [7] Ibid, VAM 2 1740–8, ff. 86, 105 and 106. [8] Ibid, VAM 4 1747–60, ff. 65, 69 and 114. There was almost indecent haste in both cases, Lord Coventry’s father dying in March and his account with Wickes and Netherton is dated June whilst Lord Scarborough inherited in March and was being billed in November. [9] Barclays Group Archives, Goslings Bank, Ledger 130/23, f. 74. [10] X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis carried out March 2015. Plates 20, 23, 47, 50 and 60 were analysed. For a discussion of plate duty and its avoidance see Elaine Barr, George Wickes, 1980, pp. 191-6 and Anthony Dove, ‘Plate duty. Its origins, marks and variations’, Silver Studies, no. 22 (2007), pp. 105-16. [11] Assuming an average charge of 8s per ounce to include silver and fashion. [12] Analysis carried out March–April 2015 at the London Assay Office by XRF and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The centre of the plate is 96.62% silver and the gadrooning 89.88% silver.