Summary

Pair of round tureens, silver, probably by Andrea Boucheron and Paolo Antonio Paroletto, Turin, circa 1756. The shaped circular bombé bases of the tureens each rest on four cast and applied foliate scroll feet, the foliage continuing around the lower edge of the body, intertwining at either end with scroll and rocaille-work that rises around root vegetables to the shell-and-leaf upturned handles. All this detail is cast and applied as are the coats of arms on either side with frilled shields contained within C- and S-scrolls. Behind are chased ermine mantles and a chased lambrequin band with flutes and ovals sits below a cast and chased reed-and-tie moulding applied to the lip. The undersides have been cut out of the tureen bases around the peripheral scrollwork. The domed covers are shaped to conform to the bases and have seamed bezels. Above a simple moulded rim are chased horizontal panels of diaper-work and then another cast reed-and-tie moulding. At the corners above this moulding are chased shells and spanning it at all four centres are large cast shells and scrolls which support four distinct cast and chased trophies. Those above the coats of arms have fish and an eel in front of bullrushes and a net, and a rabbit or hare against celery and an artichoke, whilst above the handles there is a group of a turtle, lobster and fish and, finally, game birds with a turnip and cauliflower against a net with water plants and root vegetables. The cast handles are in the form of ounces, or snow leopards, ducally collared and chained, each holding a trefoil. Both covers have had their bezels crudely manipulated to try to get them to fit the bases properly. The plain oval liners are raised and have rims shaped to fit the bases, applied moulded borders and two cast and applied swan-neck-and-ball handles fixed horizontally and secured by rivets. Heraldry: On either side of each tureen is the cast, chased and engraved quartered shield, supporters and motto of the 2nd Earl of Bristol beneath an earl’s coronet and against a chased ermine mantling. The finial handles of the covers are in the form of the Hervey crest. Hallmarks: Each of the bases is stamped on the inside face with the assay mark of Giovan Battista Carron (in office 1753–78), the Savoy cross in a shield flanked by ‘G B’ with ‘C’ beneath and a closed crown above (Gianfranco Fina & Luca Mana, Argenti Sabauda del XVIII Secolo, 2012, p. 248). Scratchweights and inscriptions: On the underside of the covers: ‘A d [/] oz [/] 209 = 16 [crossed through] [/] 199=7’ and ‘B d [/] oz [/] 196 = 21 [crossed through] [/] 194=2’. The liners and the bases have either A or B scratched on them to identify the correct components of each tureen.

Full description

These tureens are almost certainly by either Andrea Boucheron or Paulo Antonio Paroletto, or them both working together. Although their maker’s marks are lacking here they are present on many of Lord Bristol’s other Turin commissions and as the most prestigious and talented goldsmiths then working in the city it seems highly unlikely that the premier pieces made for the English envoy would not have been executed by them, or at least to their design. Lord Bristol must have discovered quite quickly after his arrival in Turin that although his pair of oval tureens (NT 852127) were magnificent and sufficiently fashionable, it was de rigeur at the grand tables of the city, as in other Continental capitals that followed French fashions more closely than the English, to have sets of four tureens – two oval and two round, the latter to flank a dish or epergne in the centre of the table. Such an arrangement had been shown by Vincent La Chapelle in his 1742 Le cuisinier moderne, the first French edition of The modern cook, and the tureens he was depicting were probably those of the 4th Earl of Chesterfield so they would have been known in London. So too would the four provided to the 4th Earl of Berkeley by Jacques Roëttier, bearing Paris marks for 1736 and 1737,[1] but the norm in Britain remained a pair or a trio with an additional, larger tureen for the centre of the table. Lord Warrington had three at Dunham Massey in 1750 as did the 2nd Duke of Montagu at Montagu House in 1733 and 1746,[2] but even the magnificent and lavish dinner services supplied by George Wickes to the future 1st Duke of Leinster in 1747 and the Marquess of Granby in 1750 had just two tureens.[3] One of the first instances of a set of four appearing in the Jewel Office records amongst perquisite plate is that issued to Benjamin Keene as ambassador to Spain in 1750. He was a man who was fully conversant with the more purely French fashions of the continent, having spent most of the last thirty years resident in Madrid and Lisbon. His two oval and two circular tureens were not, he wrote shortly after their arrival, ‘for every day’ but he had the opportunity to make full use of them when the King of Spain’s Secretary of State, the Marquis de la Ensenada, dined with him on 30 July 1750. As Ensenada had ‘taste and magnificence, I thought no occasion so proper to lose the maidenhead of my plate as in his presence.’[4] In creating the required round tureens for Lord Bristol the Turin goldsmiths followed the spirit if not the fine detail of the oval pair by Kandler and a comparison is instructive. Their bases have broadly the same elements as Kandler’s but the bombé form is more accentuated and the corners are uplifted at the rim resulting in a tighter, more upright appearance. The feet are less recessed and curved, bringing them in line with the body and giving better visual support, the handles slimmer and less distracting and the chased and cast elements more effectively integrated. Particularly improved is the handling of the coats of arms, somewhat ponderous and detached on the oval tureens but fully integrated and better proportioned in their individual elements on the Turin pair. Thus the quarterings are rendered clearer by being in a symmetrical shield, the earl’s coronet is larger and more firmly balanced, the ounce supporters stand on scrolls linking to the feet and the chased mantling has more life and movement. Generally the chasing is far superior as in the lambrequin band beneath the reed-and-tie rim, which is much more confident and subtle, abandoning the corner rosettes and with more intense surface treatment. Boucheron created a similar effect on an ecuelle (paiola in Italian) of c.1750.[5] The covers are of the same domed form as Kandler employed but they do not follow his scheme of decoration beyond the reed-and-tie band and the handle in the form of the ounce crest of the Herveys. They are more compartmented with their panels of diaper-work and four distinct trophies of fish, game and vegetables and that helps give space to the ounces as finials but is less charmingly naturalistic than Kandler’s loosely scattered vegetables spilling down beyond the reed-and-tie. The liners are of a thinner gauge of metal than those of the English tureens and they have consequently suffered more from two hundred years of use. Generally, Kandler’s tureens are more practically successful with the component parts fitting together more precisely and the side handles and the ounces being more comfortable in the hold. For the associated dishes made as stands for these tureens see NT 852105. James Rothwell, Decorative Arts Curator April 2021 [Adapted from James Rothwell, Silver for Entertaining: The Ickworth Collection, London 2017, cat. 53, pp. 137-9.] Notes: [1] Sotheby’s, 16 June 1960, ‘The Berkeley Castle Service (to be sold as one lot)’. [2] James Lomax and James Rothwell, Country House Silver from Dunham Massey, London 2006, p. 76 and Tessa Murdoch, Noble Households, Cambridge 2006, pp. 44 and 108. [3] National Art Library, Garrard Ledgers, VAM 3 1747–50, ff. 1 and 166. [4] Sir Richard Lodge (ed.), The Private Correspondence of Sir Benjamin Keene, Cambridge 1933, pp. 239-40, Benjamin Keene to Abraham Castres, Madrid, 31 July 1750. [5] Gianfranco Fina & Luca Mana, Argenti Sabauda del XVIII Secolo, Milan 2012, p. 117, fig. 108. Exhibited: Treasures from National Trust Houses, Christie’s, London, 1957–8, cat. 173 (one); Ideal Home Exhibition, London, 1960 (one).