Lot Essay
Thomas Cory was apprenticed to Edward Wade in 1646 and was made free in 1645.
Few examples survive of this rare form. A similar cordial pot, now in the Untermyer Collection, The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in Y. Hakenbrock, English and other Silver in the Irwin Untermeyer Collection, New York, 1968, pl. 81. With maker's mark FS over S, circa 1685, it is closely related to the present example. It is supported on very similar scroll feet and has similar cut-card work decoration and slightly domed cover. Another related example, by the same maker, circa 1690, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is illustrated in M. Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of English and American Silver, Oxford, p. 84. The overall form is comparable, however the decoration contrasts strongly with the previous plainer examples. The scroll feet are cast to form grotesque animal heads, the handle is formed as a cast grostesque serpent and the curved spout has a serpent head terminal. Moreover the body is finely engraved with the scene of a hunt within scrolling foliage.
Few examples survive of this rare form. A similar cordial pot, now in the Untermyer Collection, The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in Y. Hakenbrock, English and other Silver in the Irwin Untermeyer Collection, New York, 1968, pl. 81. With maker's mark FS over S, circa 1685, it is closely related to the present example. It is supported on very similar scroll feet and has similar cut-card work decoration and slightly domed cover. Another related example, by the same maker, circa 1690, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is illustrated in M. Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of English and American Silver, Oxford, p. 84. The overall form is comparable, however the decoration contrasts strongly with the previous plainer examples. The scroll feet are cast to form grotesque animal heads, the handle is formed as a cast grostesque serpent and the curved spout has a serpent head terminal. Moreover the body is finely engraved with the scene of a hunt within scrolling foliage.