Twenty-four soup plates
Frederick Kandler (d.1778)
Category
Silver
Date
1751 - circa 1756
Materials
Silver
Measurements
2.9 cm (ht); 24.8 cm (diam., English); 25.1 cm (diam., Italian)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852126
Summary
Twenty four soup plates of which eighteen are sterling silver, by Frederick Kandler, London, 1751/2 and six are silver, by Paolo Antonio Paroletto, Turin, circa 1756. The deep, circular plates are raised and have a broad rim with an applied cast and chased shaped border of gadrooning. Heraldry: Each plate is engraved on its rim 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 six Turin plates (852126.19-24) is Italian. Hallmarks: Eighteen of the plates (852126.1-18) are fully marked on the underside with leopard’s head, maker’s mark ‘FK’ in italics beneath a fleur-de-lis (Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, 1990, no. 691), date letter ‘q’ and lion passant. The remaining six plates (852126.19-24) are marked on the underside with the maker's mark of Paolo Antonio Paroletto (see Gianfranco Fina & Luca Mana, Argenti Sabauda del XVIII Secolo, 2012, pp. 235-6, fig. 43) and various other marks relating to the Turin assay. Scratchweights: ‘Nº. = 127 [/] N 90 [/] 20 =4’, ‘Nº = 128 [/] N 89 [/] 20 =18’, ‘Nº = 129 [/] N 88 [/] 20 =12’, ‘Nº- = 130 [/] N 87 [/] 20 = 4’, ‘Nº- = 131 [/] N 86 [/] 20 =14’, ‘Nº - 132 [/] N 85 [/] 20 =2’, ‘Nº- = 133 [/] N 84 [/] 20 =12’, ‘Nº- 134 [/] N 83 [/] 20 =14’, ‘Nº = 135 [/] N 82 [/] 20 =19’, ‘Nº = 136 [/] N 81 [/] 20 =15’, ‘Nº= 137 [/] N 80 [/] 20 =19’, ‘Nº- 138 [/] N 79 [/] 21 =5’, ‘Nº- = 139 [/] N 78 [/] 20 =19’, ‘Nº- = 140 [/] N 77 [/] 20 =6’, ‘Nº- = 141 [/] N 76 [/] 21 = 5 = ¼’, ‘Nº- = 142 [/] N 75 [/] 20 =11’, ‘Nº- = 143 [/] N 74 [/] 20 =3’, and ‘Nº= 144 [/] N 73 [/] 20 =10’; ‘Nº. 121 [/] N٨ 108 [/] 20۸ 6 [/] 19=17’; ‘Nº. 122 [/] N٨ 107 [/] 20 [/] 19=12’; ‘Nº= =123 [/] N٨ 106 [/] 21۸ 6 [/] 21=1’; ‘N. 124 [over ‘104’] [/] 19۸ 10 [/] 19=1’; ‘N. 125 [over ‘105’] [/] 21۸ 15 [/] 21=5’; ‘Nº. 126 [/] N٨ 103 [/] 21٨15 [/] 21=7’. In each case the second number is struck through or inscribed over and on the Italian plates (19-24), the first weight is also struck through.
Full description
The eighteen plates of 1751/2 marked by Frederick Kandler (NT 852126.1-18) have clearly been altered since first being made, the hallmarks on many of them being distorted by the crease between the bowl and the rim. It is likely that they were intended to be dinner plates and were deepened at some point to serve for soup. Given that they do not seem to have been re-engraved this could have occurred very quickly and before they left Kandler’s workshop. Their original numbering followed on from the seventy-two dinner plates of circa 1751 (NT 852124.1-72) and this was maintained when additional soup and dinner plates were procured in Turin later in the 1750s (NT 852126.19-24 & 852124.73-120). As a consequence the soup plates were numbered between the two sets of dinner plates and this inconsistency probably remained until after Lord Bristol’s return from the Continent in 1762, judging by what looks to be English renumbering. Within the original numbering of soup plates there is a gap of twelve between the end of the surviving English run and the commencement of the Turinese. It is therefore likely that the Earl had additional soup plates and as they were almost invariably supplied in dozens there must have been six more of the Kandler set, giving two dozen, and six from Turin, for a further dozen. Those that are missing may well have been lost in the mêlée surrounding the hasty departure from Madrid following Britain’s declaration of war against Spain in the last days of 1761. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator February 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 34 & 57, pp. 114 & 143.]
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 (d.1778), goldsmith Paolo Antonio Paroletto, goldsmith