Lot Essay
The Royal arms are engraved in a similar manner to the arms of Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Earl of Strafford (1672-1739) depicted on a magnificent Queen Anne sideboard dish by John Bache, 1713, sold from the Hilmar Reksten Collection, Chrsitie's London, 21 May 1991, lot 127. There were a number of prominent engravers at the time, most noticeably Benjamin Rhodes and a number of members of the Rollos family, who were both goldsmiths and engravers. Charles Oman in English Engraved Silver 1150-1900, London, 1978, p.87 attributes the engraving on a silver-gilt basin of 1705 to John Rollos (d.1743). The dish formed part of the Royal ambassadorial plate taken by Baron Raby, later 3rd Earl of Strafford, to the court of the King of Prussia. A comparison of the engraving on the present lot and the examples above suggests a possible attribution of the engraving to John Rollos, who Oman records op cit., p.86 as working for the Stamp Office cutting seals and stamps. He also notes that from 1720 to his death, he engraved seals for the crown and it would seem very possible for him to have engraved arms for the Jewel House on both seal-boxes and ambassadorial plate.