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The Warrington Plate
LOTS 636 AND 637
George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758), was an important patron of the leading Huguenot silversmiths of his day, and his vast and well-documented collection provides us with a fascinating portrait not only of the 2nd Earl but also of the use of silver in a great country house of the first half of the 18th century.
On his succession in 1693, the 2nd Earl inherited his father's prodigious debts along with his title. A strategic marriage to Mary Oldbury (d.1740), the daughter of a rich London merchant, raised the family out of their financial misfortune but brought personal woes with it. The couple had a troubled marriage and only one legitimate child, Mary Booth (b.1704). The Earl named his daughter as his sole heiress. Aside from improving its park, it was said that he planted over 100,000 trees, the 2nd Earl devoted himself to building a sizable silver collection.
The Warrington Plate is distinguished by its uniformly high quality, exceptionally heavy gauge, and its conservative taste. The Earl favoured the plain and heavy fashions of the early 18th century Huguenot silversmiths. His near obsession with expanding the collection at Dunham Massey is underscored by the existence of a lengthy inventory written in his own hand, entitled ‘The Particular of my Plate & its Weight.’ The seventeen-page document, dated 1750 and amended by the Earl in 1754, records over 25,000 ounces of silver.
The Earl's only child, Mary, married Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768) in 1736. After Warrington's death in 1758, Dunham Massey passed to them and subsequently descended in the Grey family. Although a group of the Warrington Plate was sold by their descendants at Christie's, London in two main sales (20 April 1921 and 25 February 1931), the Warrington Plate is significant because it is ‘probably the largest group of plate to have survived in the house for which it was originally made’ and has been the subject of a National Trust publication which matches the 2nd Earl's records for it meticulous detailing of the collection and surpasses it with extensive research and comment (J. Lomax and J. Rothwell, Country House Silver at Dunham Massey, London, 2006).
PROPERTY OF A LADY
A GEORGE II SILVER CASTER
MARK OF DANIEL PIERS, LONDON, 1746
Details
A GEORGE II SILVER CASTER
MARK OF DANIEL PIERS, LONDON, 1746
Pear-shaped and on spreading gadrooned foot, the lower body and rim each applied with cut-card work, the bayonet mounted cover pierced with foliate scrolls populated by birds and with a stencil figure on either side, with gadrooned finial, engraved with a coat-of-arms below an earl's coronet, marked underneath and on cover, further engraved underneath with a scratchweight '10=6'
6 5/8 in. (16.2 cm.) high
9 oz. 17 dwt. (305.7 gr.)
The arms are those of Grey impaling Booth for Henry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768) and his wife Lady Mary (1704-1772), daughter of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758).
MARK OF DANIEL PIERS, LONDON, 1746
Pear-shaped and on spreading gadrooned foot, the lower body and rim each applied with cut-card work, the bayonet mounted cover pierced with foliate scrolls populated by birds and with a stencil figure on either side, with gadrooned finial, engraved with a coat-of-arms below an earl's coronet, marked underneath and on cover, further engraved underneath with a scratchweight '10=6'
6 5/8 in. (16.2 cm.) high
9 oz. 17 dwt. (305.7 gr.)
The arms are those of Grey impaling Booth for Henry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768) and his wife Lady Mary (1704-1772), daughter of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758).
Provenance
Henry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768) and his wife Lady Mary (1704-1772), daughter of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758) and then by descent to
Catherine, Lady Grey (d.1925) and Sir John Foley-Grey 8th Bt. (1893-1938).
Anonymous sale [Sir John Foley Grey, Bart.]; Christie's, London, 2 December 1931, lot 26 (£26 to Vander).
R. W. Lloyd, Esq., Sold by Order of the Executors; Christie's, London, 27 May, 1959 (£125 to Tessier).
Catherine, Lady Grey (d.1925) and Sir John Foley-Grey 8th Bt. (1893-1938).
Anonymous sale [Sir John Foley Grey, Bart.]; Christie's, London, 2 December 1931, lot 26 (£26 to Vander).
R. W. Lloyd, Esq., Sold by Order of the Executors; Christie's, London, 27 May, 1959 (£125 to Tessier).
Brought to you by
Matilda Burn
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