A FINE GEORGE III SILVER KETTLE, STAND AND LAMP

Details

A FINE GEORGE III SILVER KETTLE, STAND AND LAMP
MAKER'S MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1802

Circular, the lower body chased with water leaves on a matted ground and at the shoulder with a band of spiral fluting within stiff leaf borders, with entwined snake part-ivory overhead handle, egg-and-dart rim and removable cover chased with water leaves and with fluted ivory finial, the serpent-form tap issuing from applied wings with vase-form spigot; the circular stand raised on four massive paw and wing supports with applied guilloche and overlapping quatrefoil bands under pierced spirals, with removable, circular lamp and cover with similar decoration, the base, shoulder and cover engraved with a crest and Duke's coronet, fully marked--15in.(38cm.) high
(189oz., 5890gr.) (3)

Provenance

The Duke of Manchester, Christie's, London, March 16, 1949, lot 38
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, October 28, 1953, lot 138
Billy Rose, New York
Morrie A. Moss, Memphis, Tennessee

Literature

N.M. Penzer, Paul Storr, 1954, p. 114, plate XVIII
Morrie A. Moss, The Lillian and Morrie A. Moss Collection of Paul Storr Silver, 1965, plate 148

Lot Essay

The crest and coronet are those of William, 5th Duke of Manchester, born in 1771, who succeeded to the Dukedom in 1788. As a young man he saw service in the 35th Foot and later was Governor of Jamaica from 1808 to 1827. He married in 1793 Susan, the celebrated beauty, sister and co-heir of George, 5th Duke of Gordon. The marriage was not a happy one - in The Memoirs of a Highland Lady, under the date 1812, it is mentioned that "the Duchess had left home with one of her footmen." Lady Jerningham wrote, on September 6, 1813, "The Duchess of Manchester is finally parted from her husband, her conduct being most notoriously bad." The Duke, who was described in Memoirs of a Highland Lady as "the most beautiful statue-like person that was ever seen in flesh and blood," died, of a violent fever, at Rome in 1843 aged 73.