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Lot Essay
THE STEEPLE CUP
This distinctly English form was the subject of an exhaustive study by the academic Norman Penzer (1892-1960) in his series of five articles in the Apollo published between 1959 and 1964. Surviving true steeple cups dates from 1599 to 1646. Penzer noted that although many were subsequently given to churches their use was secular. The steeple or obelisk motif was a popular architectural ornament throughout Europe in the mannerist period, but was only adopted for the covers of standing cups in England. There is a proliferation of steeple/obelisk motifs throughout England in the middle years of the 16th century on buildings, in design sources, in gardens and on plate. Penzer records their use at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, 1557 to 1564, at Montacute House, Somerset, 1588 to 1601 and at Knole in 1605, amongst many other instances. The Gates of Honour at Caius College Cambridge, sported four slender obelisk on each corner of the upper structure and the triumphal arch raised to celebrate the progress of King James I in March 604/4 was similarly adorned. There are numerous other examples given. The engraver William Rogers published his image 'Eliza Triumphans', celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s victory over the Armada in 1588, which depicts the monarch flanked by obelisks topped by the figures of Peace and Plenty. This imagery draws on the earlier Flemish publication Emblemata XIV, printed in Antwerp by Hadrian Junius in 1562.
Inventories record cups or ‘bolles’ with a steeple or pinnacle which predate the earliest surviving examples. The inventory of Royal plate of 1575 lists cups (bolles) with ‘pinacles’, but the melting pot - ‘that voracious dragon into whose insatiable maw so much plate has been thrown’ to quote Penzer’s dramatic imagery, has consigned them to history. Penzer cites, amongst others ‘No. 483 Item oon bolle with a couer guilt and chasid with six Dolphenes in the toppe of the cover like a pinacle’, ‘No. 518 Item thre bolles with a parcel couer parcel guilt having a pinnacle upon the couer ther feet graven and guilt’ and ‘No 152 One bolle with a couer of Sylver guilt – smale chased with fishes the couer with a pinnacle in the top’, the last given to the Queen by Lord Burghley in 1584/5. Thomas Francis
The maker to whom Dr Mitchell attributes this work, op. cit., p. 208 and pp. 522-4, became free of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1604. As discussed earlier Thomas Francis was the son of a Shropshire yeoman and was initially apprenticed to the plateworker Thomas Flynt. He had a modest retail business by 1622 and was fashioning plate such as fruit dishes and bowls and made a gold cup for the goldsmith banker Thomas Vyner (1588-1665) in 1630, which was later presented by the City of London to Prince Charles, later King Charles II. His known surviving work also includes quite a number of steeple cups. Two are in the collection of the Corporation of Portsmouth and are illustrated here. They date from 1606 and 1609. Another in a civic collection is the cup of 1625 at Barnstaple, Devon. A cup by Francis of 1609 was exhibited anonymously at the Seaford House Exhibition in 1929, no. 97. Others are known; one of 1611 in the collection of the Carpenters’ Company exhibited in 1927, one of 1617 at St. Andrew’s Church, Norwich, and another of 1623, sold from the Sir John Noble Collection at Christie’s on 3 June 1935, lot 139. The steeple cup and cover of 1625, with 'rolled acanthus leaf' decoration, known as the Richard Chester Cup, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Philippa Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, 1990, no. 23 is also by Francis.
HAROLD HARMSWORTH, 1ST VISCOUNT ROTHERMERE
Lord Rothermere was a considerable collector of early silver. Much of his collection was dispersed at a major sale, held at Christie’s on 3 December 1941. The sale totalled over £29,000. It was clearly a very personal collection as The Times article, which reported on the auction, commented ‘Connoisseurs have long known of the late Lord Rothermere’s collections of pictures by old masters and his magnificent assemblage of decorative furniture, but few has suspected his love of old English Silver.’ He was not only a great collector or silver for his own account, but also as a major benefactor to the Middle Temple, where he was elected as an Honorary Bencher in 1928. On realising that the Inn had no silver predating 1663, all earlier pieces having been lost to the ‘voracious dragon’ or the Civil War melting pot, he made steps to remedy the situation. Between the years 1931 and 1940 he gave the Middle Temple twenty-three pieces of silver dating from 1557 to 1658. This magnificent gift included three steeple cups. Some pieces came from his own collection, although the majority were bought by him, often at Christie's. It is said he or his driver would arrive at the Under Treasurer's office, unannounced, with the latest piece wrapped up in one of his own newspapers.
This distinctly English form was the subject of an exhaustive study by the academic Norman Penzer (1892-1960) in his series of five articles in the Apollo published between 1959 and 1964. Surviving true steeple cups dates from 1599 to 1646. Penzer noted that although many were subsequently given to churches their use was secular. The steeple or obelisk motif was a popular architectural ornament throughout Europe in the mannerist period, but was only adopted for the covers of standing cups in England. There is a proliferation of steeple/obelisk motifs throughout England in the middle years of the 16th century on buildings, in design sources, in gardens and on plate. Penzer records their use at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, 1557 to 1564, at Montacute House, Somerset, 1588 to 1601 and at Knole in 1605, amongst many other instances. The Gates of Honour at Caius College Cambridge, sported four slender obelisk on each corner of the upper structure and the triumphal arch raised to celebrate the progress of King James I in March 604/4 was similarly adorned. There are numerous other examples given. The engraver William Rogers published his image 'Eliza Triumphans', celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s victory over the Armada in 1588, which depicts the monarch flanked by obelisks topped by the figures of Peace and Plenty. This imagery draws on the earlier Flemish publication Emblemata XIV, printed in Antwerp by Hadrian Junius in 1562.
Inventories record cups or ‘bolles’ with a steeple or pinnacle which predate the earliest surviving examples. The inventory of Royal plate of 1575 lists cups (bolles) with ‘pinacles’, but the melting pot - ‘that voracious dragon into whose insatiable maw so much plate has been thrown’ to quote Penzer’s dramatic imagery, has consigned them to history. Penzer cites, amongst others ‘No. 483 Item oon bolle with a couer guilt and chasid with six Dolphenes in the toppe of the cover like a pinacle’, ‘No. 518 Item thre bolles with a parcel couer parcel guilt having a pinnacle upon the couer ther feet graven and guilt’ and ‘No 152 One bolle with a couer of Sylver guilt – smale chased with fishes the couer with a pinnacle in the top’, the last given to the Queen by Lord Burghley in 1584/5. Thomas Francis
The maker to whom Dr Mitchell attributes this work, op. cit., p. 208 and pp. 522-4, became free of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1604. As discussed earlier Thomas Francis was the son of a Shropshire yeoman and was initially apprenticed to the plateworker Thomas Flynt. He had a modest retail business by 1622 and was fashioning plate such as fruit dishes and bowls and made a gold cup for the goldsmith banker Thomas Vyner (1588-1665) in 1630, which was later presented by the City of London to Prince Charles, later King Charles II. His known surviving work also includes quite a number of steeple cups. Two are in the collection of the Corporation of Portsmouth and are illustrated here. They date from 1606 and 1609. Another in a civic collection is the cup of 1625 at Barnstaple, Devon. A cup by Francis of 1609 was exhibited anonymously at the Seaford House Exhibition in 1929, no. 97. Others are known; one of 1611 in the collection of the Carpenters’ Company exhibited in 1927, one of 1617 at St. Andrew’s Church, Norwich, and another of 1623, sold from the Sir John Noble Collection at Christie’s on 3 June 1935, lot 139. The steeple cup and cover of 1625, with 'rolled acanthus leaf' decoration, known as the Richard Chester Cup, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Philippa Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, 1990, no. 23 is also by Francis.
HAROLD HARMSWORTH, 1ST VISCOUNT ROTHERMERE
Lord Rothermere was a considerable collector of early silver. Much of his collection was dispersed at a major sale, held at Christie’s on 3 December 1941. The sale totalled over £29,000. It was clearly a very personal collection as The Times article, which reported on the auction, commented ‘Connoisseurs have long known of the late Lord Rothermere’s collections of pictures by old masters and his magnificent assemblage of decorative furniture, but few has suspected his love of old English Silver.’ He was not only a great collector or silver for his own account, but also as a major benefactor to the Middle Temple, where he was elected as an Honorary Bencher in 1928. On realising that the Inn had no silver predating 1663, all earlier pieces having been lost to the ‘voracious dragon’ or the Civil War melting pot, he made steps to remedy the situation. Between the years 1931 and 1940 he gave the Middle Temple twenty-three pieces of silver dating from 1557 to 1658. This magnificent gift included three steeple cups. Some pieces came from his own collection, although the majority were bought by him, often at Christie's. It is said he or his driver would arrive at the Under Treasurer's office, unannounced, with the latest piece wrapped up in one of his own newspapers.