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Lot Essay
The crest and coronet are those of George, Lord Anson, Admiral of the Fleet (1697-1762).
Sent to sea at age 14, George Anson (1697-1762) first became famous for circumnavigating the globe in 1740-44. The journey was so perilous that his passage around Cape Horn reduced his squadron from six ships to just one, the Centurion. Continuing across the Pacific alone, the Centurion seized a Spanish treasure ship, the Nuestra Señora de Cavadonga, en route from Manila to Acapulco.
Anson's return to England was celebrated by a parade of the Spanish booty, requiring 32 wagons, through the streets of London. A contemporary account described "2,600,000 Pieces of Eight, 150,000 ounces of plate, 10 bars of Gold, and a large quantity of gold and silver dust"; in the whole to the amount of £1,250,000 Sterling. Anson's personal share of the booty was prodigious, allowing him to make improvements to the family estate at Shugborough and to amass a vast dinner service in silver. From 1744 to 1750, Anson commissioned some 40 pieces of silver of magnificent quality from Lamerie. This pair of sauceboats, with another pair, and a set of four matching stands, all 1739, were likely given to Anson by his father-in-law, the Earl of Hardwicke, an important and early patron of Lamerie. Together with a Lamerie ewer and dish of 1726, also believed to be a gift from Lord Hardwicke, these sauceboats formed the nucleus of a collection that Anson expanded into one of the greatest English silver services ever made. The sauceboats and 55 other lots of the Admiral's Lamerie silver were sold at Christie's, London, June 8, 1893, consigned by the Earl of Lichfield, a descendant of Anson's sister. (See: Christopher Hartop, "Admiral George Anson and his de Lamerie Silver," The Magazine Antiques, June 1994, pp. 850-57.)
The matching pair of sauceboats (lot 13 or 14 from the 1893 sale) are in the collection of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, and illustrated in Timothy B. Schroder, The Francis E. Fowler Jr. Collection of Silver, 1991, no. 38, p. 48. The four companion stands (lots 15-18 in the 1893 sale) are in the Gans Collection, Virginia Museum of Art, and illustrated in Joseph R. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver, no.12, p. 40-43. One of the four stands now in the Gans Collection was sold from the collection of Mrs. R. M. Robertson, Christie's, New York, October 27, 1987, no. 429.
Sent to sea at age 14, George Anson (1697-1762) first became famous for circumnavigating the globe in 1740-44. The journey was so perilous that his passage around Cape Horn reduced his squadron from six ships to just one, the Centurion. Continuing across the Pacific alone, the Centurion seized a Spanish treasure ship, the Nuestra Señora de Cavadonga, en route from Manila to Acapulco.
Anson's return to England was celebrated by a parade of the Spanish booty, requiring 32 wagons, through the streets of London. A contemporary account described "2,600,000 Pieces of Eight, 150,000 ounces of plate, 10 bars of Gold, and a large quantity of gold and silver dust"; in the whole to the amount of £1,250,000 Sterling. Anson's personal share of the booty was prodigious, allowing him to make improvements to the family estate at Shugborough and to amass a vast dinner service in silver. From 1744 to 1750, Anson commissioned some 40 pieces of silver of magnificent quality from Lamerie. This pair of sauceboats, with another pair, and a set of four matching stands, all 1739, were likely given to Anson by his father-in-law, the Earl of Hardwicke, an important and early patron of Lamerie. Together with a Lamerie ewer and dish of 1726, also believed to be a gift from Lord Hardwicke, these sauceboats formed the nucleus of a collection that Anson expanded into one of the greatest English silver services ever made. The sauceboats and 55 other lots of the Admiral's Lamerie silver were sold at Christie's, London, June 8, 1893, consigned by the Earl of Lichfield, a descendant of Anson's sister. (See: Christopher Hartop, "Admiral George Anson and his de Lamerie Silver," The Magazine Antiques, June 1994, pp. 850-57.)
The matching pair of sauceboats (lot 13 or 14 from the 1893 sale) are in the collection of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles, and illustrated in Timothy B. Schroder, The Francis E. Fowler Jr. Collection of Silver, 1991, no. 38, p. 48. The four companion stands (lots 15-18 in the 1893 sale) are in the Gans Collection, Virginia Museum of Art, and illustrated in Joseph R. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver, no.12, p. 40-43. One of the four stands now in the Gans Collection was sold from the collection of Mrs. R. M. Robertson, Christie's, New York, October 27, 1987, no. 429.