MARK OF PHILIP RUNDELL, LONDON, 1823, THE ENGRAVING ATTRIBUTED TO WALTER JACKSON

HUGH PERCY, 3RD DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND
He was the eldest son of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland and his second wife Frances Julia Burrell (d.1820). Born in 1785 he was educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge where he obtained an M.A. and an L.L.D. in 1809. He began a political career in 1806 when he was returned as member of Parliament for Buckingham, later sitting for Westminster, the county of Northumberland and Launceston. Although he rarely spoke in Parliament he did move for an amendment to the Slave Trade Abolition Act which would have emancipated every black child born after 1 January 1810.

In April 1817 he married Lady Charlotte Florentia (d.1866), second daughter of Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis. The service was held at Percy's London home Northumberland House. The marriage seems to have been a success, with the Duke being described by Greville as 'a very good sort of man, with a very narrow understanding, an eternal talker, and a prodigious bore. The Duchess is a more sensible woman, and amiable and good humoured. He is supposed to be ruled in all things by her advice.' (Greville Memoirs, 1.164).


THE DESIGN OF THE TRAY
The engraving reflects the neo-classical style introduced by King George III's architect Robert Adam (1728-1792), who had been responsible for the Duke's palatial residence, Northumberland House in the Strand. The armorial bearings are displayed within a scalloped-edged tablet on an 'antique' punched ground framed within ribbon-tied garlands suspended from paterae. A more Regency note is struck by the paired feet, which are designed in the manner of 'antique' sideboard table frames, as conceived by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (1769–1831), and illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, published in 1807; whilst the naturalistic oak leaf and acorn handles can be found in similar forms in the Rundell's design book, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, thought to be the work of Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867).

NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE
The tray would have formed part of the furnishings introduced in the early 1820s to Northumberland House, London, following the 3rd Earl of Northumberland's further embellishment of Robert Adam's 1770s interiors, executed under the direction of the architect Thomas Cundy and the cabinet-makers and upholsterers, Messrs Morel & Hughes. In March 1825, the 'splendid furniture lately executed for the Duke of Northumberland' was praised by Rudolph Ackermann in the The Repository of Arts.

The Duke was known for his love of extravagance, shown by his orders from Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, who supplied large quantities of silver and silver-gilt from 1822 to 1831, including the present tray, one of a pair, and another smaller pair. The pair to this tray was sold from the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Sotheby's on 3 May 1984, lot 113. It is illustrated in V. Brett, Sotheby's Directory of Silver, London, 1986, p. 257, no. 1162. The smaller pair were most recently sold at Christie's, London, 23 November 1999, lot 179. Many of these commissions are recorded in the Percy Letters in the Duke of Northumberland's archives. Rundell's additionally gilded and repaired pieces in the Duke's existing collection, and provided insurance for the transport of the Duke's plate to France when he traveled there in 1825 as Special Ambassador at the coronation of Charles X. Indeed the Duke's probate inventory, prepared after his death in 1847, shows that at Northumberland House alone there were twenty-nine chests of silver. The tray would also have been displayed at Syon House, the Duke's home to the West of London, and Alnwick Castle, his Northumberland seat.

WALTER JACKSON (1780?-1834)
Walter Jackson was probably the most gifted of the early nineteenth century engravers and is known to have engraved silver for both King George III and the Prince Regent. He was employed by John Bridge, of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the Royal Goldsmiths, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship. Jackson, the son of John Jackson, a printer of Plough Place off Fetter Lane in London, had started his apprenticeship to John Thompson of Gutter Lane in 1793. Jackson's work is best shown on large silver-gilt trays, such as the present lot, which became popular sideboard ornaments at this time. They were predominantly made by Philip Rundell, Paul Storr and Benjamin and James Smith (see C. Oman, English Engraved Silver 1150-1900, London, 1978, pp. 123-127). Jackson also worked for less prominent silversmiths, as shown by the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 1817, which records that William Betteridge, one of Jackson's servants, 'was indicted for stealing, on the 9th of September, one silver tankard, value £11, the goods of Samuel Goodbehere and James Bult'. Jackson when he appeared as a witness described the events 'The prisoner was my servant, and used to go round to the customers to collect work. Messrs. Goodbehere and Co. were our customers. He went out on the 9th of September, as usual, and never returned - he never brought the tankard. I could not find the prisoner till last Thursday, when he said - He got drunk, and did not know what had become of it, some person took it from him. He had been six months with us'. Betteridge was transported abroad for seven years in hard labour. Jackson died at his house in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, in 1834.

The Earl and Countess Harcourt, by Charles Algernon Tomkins, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1780. © National Portrait Gallery, London