AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF QUEEN ANNE SILVER-GILT CUPS AND COVERS
PROPERTY OF THE LATE SIR ARTHUR GILBERT TO BE SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE GILBERT COLLECTION AT SOMERSET HOUSE
AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF QUEEN ANNE SILVER-GILT CUPS AND COVERS

MARK OF PIERRE PLATEL, LONDON, 1702

Details
AN IMPORTANT PAIR OF QUEEN ANNE SILVER-GILT CUPS AND COVERS
MARK OF PIERRE PLATEL, LONDON, 1702
Each bell-shaped, the lower body applied with guilloche and husk strapwork, with harp-shaped handles with lambrequin joins, engraved on each side with a coat-of-arms within a baroque cartouche, the domed cover with cut-card palmettes with bud finial, marked under each base and cover, with scratchweights on base and cover 35=10, 11=3 and 33=19 and 10=19
8¾ in. (22 cm.) high; 91 oz. 10 dwt. (2856 gr.)
The arms are those of Gorges, for Henry Gorges of Eye and the Mynde (b.c. 1665-1717) (2)
Provenance
Henry Gorges of Eye and Mynde, Herefordshire
Meliora Gorges and Mary Huxley (née Gorges)
Miss Huxley
Archibald, 5th Earl of Rosebery, purchased from Garrard & Co., 24 December 1878, "2 cups and covers £2720-0-0"
Sotheby's, London, 11 February 1999, lot 25
with S.J. Phillips, London

Lot Essay

Henry Gorges of Eye and the Mynde was MP for Herefordshire in 1698 and later for Weobley and Leominster. His first marriage was to Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Robert Pye of the Mynde, and his second wife was Dorothy. He was a wealthy man, the family fortune coming from the mercantile activities of his father, Ferdinando Gorges. Henry Gorges commissioned a service of exceptionally fine silverby David Willaume and Pierre Platel, two of the best Huguenot silversmiths in London.
In his will, dated 12 March 1717, he declared "To my wife Dorothy...All my plate linnen household goods and furniture and utensils...in my house in Devonshire Street, St. Andrews Holborne and also such pieces of plate att my house att Eye...as she shall choose not exceeding £100. To my daughter Meliora £4000 and £80 a year...my pearl necklace and one of my best silver cupps and covers with such salver as she choose for it to stand on...To my youngest daughter Mary £3000 and £60 a year and my diamond ring with her mother's hair and a silver cup and cover the fellow to that herein before given to her sister Meliora with such salver to sett the same on as after her sisters choices as aforesaid she shall choose...the remaining plate to my eldest son Robert barring the large tankard to my executor for his trouble."

These cups are recorded in the 5th Earl of Rosebery's inventory at Mentmore in 1879, p.113, as "2 antique strap pattern 2 handle Cups & Covers."

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