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Lot Essay
The Duke of York was born Prince Fredrick Augustus, second son of King George III. In 1780, at the age of seventeen, he was made Colonel in the Royal Army, beginning his lifelong military career. In 1794, he was created Duke of York and Albany. At the age of 28, he dutifully married Princess Frederica, eldest daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, although they separated fairly shortly thereafter. At the time of his marriage in 1791 he was said to have had the enormous annual income of £70,000.
Following the outbreak of the war with France in 1793, the Duke fought in the Flanders campaigns and became Commander-in-Chief of the Army five years later. In 1809 he was accused of corruption on account of the practices of his mistress, Mary Ann Clark, who profited from her intimacy with the Commander-in-Chief by selling promotions to officers. The scandal forced him to resign for two years, but he was reinstated in 1811.
When the Duke of York died in 1827, his debts totaled somewhere between £200,000 and £500,000 - the imprecise figure being perhaps an indication of just how chaotic the Duke's financial affairs were at the time of his death. In order to try to satisfy these huge debts, his executors took the almost unprecedented step of selling a Royal collection at public auction. The Duke of York's silver was offered at Christie's in a four-day sale starting on 19 March 1827. Viewing of the silver was by ticket, and a copy of the catalogue admitted the prospective buyer to the auction itself. At the outset of the sale, James Christie II eulogized the late Duke and was 'warmly applauded by the company.' No doubt his announcement that the sale 'had not a single reserve' was equally well received. The total for the four-day sale of silver was £22,439/10s while the Duke's arms and armour collection and furniture brought in a further £15,000.
The present lot was part of an extensive dinner service by Henri Auguste which had been expanded by Hamlet with English silver additions. A magnificent pair of candelabra from the service are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York.