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Lot Essay
The Inventory of Silver of the Royal and Electoral Court, Hanover, 1747 offers a 'Complete inventory of the court silver comprising all his Royal Majesty our most gracious lords utensils of Gold and Silver, at present in the Royal and Elctoral Silver-Chamber at Hanover...' was compiled, originally in German and later translated to English, from various inventories from earlier in the 18th Century by the Grand Court commissary Friderich August Bartels. Besides descriptions of the various services and other items of plate from the Hanoverian court it lists weights for each item, or series of items, in both pounds and loth, though as the pound weight does not correspond to the loth weight it seems that 'mark' was probably mistranslated into pound.
The 'D' service was enough to serve 72, at three tables of 24 and weighed a total of some 3,266 marks of silver. The original service was made early in the 18th Century and so was engraved with the arms as used by George Louis after 1698 when he succeeded his father as Duke of Brunswick and Luneberg but before 1708 when he was proclaimed Prince-Elector. The service was added to in the mid 1720s and was engraved with matching, though by then out of date, arms.
Much of the Hanover Royal plate, including no doubt the present serving dish, remained at Herrenhausen until shortly after the Seven Weeks war in 1866. During the war the Palace was sacked by Prussian troops but the Royal Plate survived, having been locked away in a vault which in turn was hidden by lime and debris. George Frederick, King of Hanover, was deposed during that war and the family was deprived of the title of Kings and were, henceforth, styled Dukes of Brunswick. They settled in Austria and their silver was moved to Penzing near Vienna and the Duke's villa at Gmunden. Following the death of George Frederick's son, Ernest Augustus, in 1923 a considerable part of the Hanover silver, both German and English, was purchased by the Viennese dealer Gluckselig and it appears to have been, at least in part, resold to London dealers Crichton brothers. While presumably at least some of the 'D' service was included in that group at least some remained in the family of the Dukes of Brunswick, ending up at Schloss Marienburg before being sold in the sale of Works of Art From the Royal House of Hanover, Sotheby's House sale, 5-15 October 2005, for example lots 1141 and 1142.
The 'D' service was enough to serve 72, at three tables of 24 and weighed a total of some 3,266 marks of silver. The original service was made early in the 18th Century and so was engraved with the arms as used by George Louis after 1698 when he succeeded his father as Duke of Brunswick and Luneberg but before 1708 when he was proclaimed Prince-Elector. The service was added to in the mid 1720s and was engraved with matching, though by then out of date, arms.
Much of the Hanover Royal plate, including no doubt the present serving dish, remained at Herrenhausen until shortly after the Seven Weeks war in 1866. During the war the Palace was sacked by Prussian troops but the Royal Plate survived, having been locked away in a vault which in turn was hidden by lime and debris. George Frederick, King of Hanover, was deposed during that war and the family was deprived of the title of Kings and were, henceforth, styled Dukes of Brunswick. They settled in Austria and their silver was moved to Penzing near Vienna and the Duke's villa at Gmunden. Following the death of George Frederick's son, Ernest Augustus, in 1923 a considerable part of the Hanover silver, both German and English, was purchased by the Viennese dealer Gluckselig and it appears to have been, at least in part, resold to London dealers Crichton brothers. While presumably at least some of the 'D' service was included in that group at least some remained in the family of the Dukes of Brunswick, ending up at Schloss Marienburg before being sold in the sale of Works of Art From the Royal House of Hanover, Sotheby's House sale, 5-15 October 2005, for example lots 1141 and 1142.