A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER SOUP TUREENS AND COVERS

Details
A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER SOUP TUREENS AND COVERS
MAKER'S MARK OF THOMAS HEMING, LONDON, 1777

Each of oval form on spreading oval foot applied with a beaded band, the body part-fluted below two beaded oval cartouches, one engraved with a coats-of-arms on a matted ground, the other applied with a paterae, with two upswept leaf-clad reeded handles, the rim with a beaded band, the domed cover applied with beading and similar fluting and surmounted by a vase-form finial applied with beading, the covers engraved with a crest and Baron's coronet, marked on bases and covers--length over handles 16½in.(42cm.)
(174oz.10dwt., 5437gr.) (2)

Lot Essay

The arms are those of Pitt with those of Wilkinson, as borne by Thomas Pitt, born in 1736, the nephew of William Pitt the statesman. Thomas Pitt also followed a political career and was M.. for Old Sarum 1761-1763, for Okehampton 1768-1774 and for Old Sarum again 1774-1783. Inn 1784 he was created Lord Camelford, Baron of Boconnoc. He married in 1771 Anne, duaghter of Pinckney Wilkinson, a London merchant. He was described by Lord Rosebery as "a man of high honor, character and charm" (Chatham, His Early Life and Connections, 1910). He died in Florence aged 55 in 1793.

It is interesting to note that perrages were bestowed on four member of the Pitt family in the course of less than a century. Only two of them, however, can be said to be due to the influence of the great statesman, the first William Pitt: the Barony of Camelford and his own Earldom.