MARK OF JOHN THORTON, DUBLIN, CIRCA 1657

Details

A COMMONWEALTH IRISH SILVER-MOUNTED COCONUT-CUP
MARK OF JOHN THORTON, DUBLIN, CIRCA 1657
The coconut carved with two ships, the pennant on one inscribed 'Mather, I 1657', the nut also carved with the goddess Venus emerging from the sea on a scallop shell and a mermaid combing her hair, the base with a fruit within a shield and rose, the rim pricked engraved with the initials TE beneath C, the nut held by ribbed straps and with scroll handles and ring foot with three grotesque scroll supports, marked on rim with maker's mark only, the foot with scratchweight '4-10'
4 3/8 in. (11.3 cm.) high

Provenance

By tradition given to a Thomas Cottell by the Boston Puritan Increase Mather (1639-1723) in 1657 whilst minister to Great Torrington, Devon.
Purchased by the vendor's father in the 1960s

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Lot Essay

Increase Mather (1639-1723), was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, the son of the Lancashire born Puritan minister and preacher the Reverend Richard Mather (1596-1669), who had sailed to the New World on the ship James in 1635. Increase Mather was educated in Boston from the age of twelve and attended Harvard, graduating in 1656. In 1657 he followed his elder brothers to England, travelling on to Dublin where he studied at Trinity College, attaining his M.A.. He then travelled to Great Torrington in Devon where he served as minister in place of John Howe, Chaplain to Thomas Cromwell, a friend of his brother Nathaniel, minister in nearby Barnstable. From there he went on to Guernsey and then Gloucester, returning to Massachusetts in 1661. It is traditionally thought that the gift of the present lot was made during his time in Great Torrington.

During his life he published over fifty books on theology, natural science and history, He became the foremost Puritan in the American colonies, having been ordained into the North Church in 1664. He travelled to England once more in 1688 to champion the interests of the Bay colonists, who were resisting being incorporated into the dominion of New England. Although his audiences with King James II and then King William III failed to have the charter restored, he secured a new charter in 1691. He returned to Boston during the infamous Salem trials. He was closely associated with Harvard College and was appointed President in 1685, a post he held until 1691.

The Visitation of the County of Devon, comprising the Heralds' visitations of 1531. 1564 and 1620, revised and published by Lt. Colonel. J. L. Vivian in 1895 includes a pedigree for the Cottell family of Yealmbridge, op. cit., pp. 238-239 which records a Thomas Cottell (d.1671), his burial listed in the parish register of Werrington Church, Devon. Werrington was the home of Sir William Morice 1st Bt. (c.1628-1690), M.P. for Devon during the Commonwealth, a Presbyterian and one of King Charles II's Secretaries of State.

A carved coconut with similar mounts was sold, Phillips, London, 5 December 1986, lot 88. It was struck with an unidentified makers mark IA with a mullet below and three pellets above.

We are grateful to Dr. Thomas Sinsteden for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.

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