MARK OF ROBERT KING, LONDON, 1681

Details

THE ROMSEY/ASHBURNHAM GOLD SPOON
A CHARLES II GOLD TREFID SPOON
MARK OF ROBERT KING, LONDON, 1681
With trefid end, the back of the bowl engraved with a coat-of-arms within foliage mantling, fully marked on stem
5 ¾ in. (14.5 cm.) long
1 oz. 5 dwt. (39 gr.)
The arms are those of Romsey impaling Ashburnham for Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) and his wife Elizabeth (1641-1697), daughter of John Ashburnham (1656-1710), Groom of the Bedchamber of King Charles I. Elizabeth was the widow of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Bt. (1632-1680), of Long Ashton, co. Somerset. She was married to Colonel Romsey on 3 August 1681.

Provenance

Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) and his wife Elizabeth (1641-1697), widow of Sir Hugh Smith, 1st Bt. (1632-1680) and then by descent to her son by her first marriage
Sir John Smith, 2nd Bt. (1659-1726) and then by descent to his son
Sir John Smith, 3rd and last Bt. (1699-1741) and then by descent to his sister and co-heir
Florence (1701-1767) and her 2nd husband Jarrit Smith (d.1783), later 1st Bt. of Long Ashton of the 2nd creation, and then by descent to
A Lady; Sotheby's London, 25 July 1935, lot 38 (£245).
Sir Andrew Noble, Bt., K.C.M.G., John Noble Esq. and Michael Noble; Christie's London, 28 March 1962, lot 71 (£1,450 to Lumley).
Nathaniel Mayer Victor, 3rd Baron Rothschild (1910-1990).
A Gentleman; Christie's, London, 20 November 2001, lot 17.
with J. H. Bourdon-Smith, December 2001.

Literature

A. Grimwade, 'A New List of Old English Gold Plate', The Connoisseur, 1951, part I, p. 81, p. 79.
Christie's Review of the Season, London, 1961-62, p. 32.
T. Schroder, 'English Gold', The Handbook of the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 1985, p. 9, fig. 1.
M. Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 382, fig. 558a.
T. Kent, 'Gold', The Finial, June/July 2002, p. 198.

Exhibited

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1997-2000.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

Colonel John Romsey (d.1689) had been a colonel in Cromwell's army but is chiefly remembered for being one of the Rye House Plot conspirators. In the Spring of 1683 it was alleged that William, Baron Howard, Arthur, Earl of Essex, Algernon Sidney, Lord William Russell, Sir Thomas Armstrong, Robert Ferguson and others planned to murder King Charles II and the Duke of York, later King James II, on their was back to London from Newmarket. Another of the group, Richard Rumbold (d.1685), who had also fought with Cromwell, had married the widow of a maltster and it was at their place of business, The Rye House, near Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire that they planned to attack the Royal party with forty men. It was through Rumbold that Romsey became involved with the group. The conspirators were betrayed by Howard. Russell, Sidney and Armstrong were each tried, convicted and beheaded. Essex is thought to have committed suicide while imprisoned in the Tower. Romsey together with Howard gave evidence against their fellow plotters and escaped prosecution. He later gave evidence against the London Alderman, Henry Cornish (d.1685), and it was his testimony, together with that of Richard Goodenough, that led to Cornish's trial and subsequent execution in 1685.

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