MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1813, FOR RUNDELL, BRIDGE AND RUNDELL

Details

A PAIR OF REGENCY SILVER-GILT DESSERT STANDS
MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1813, FOR RUNDELL, BRIDGE AND RUNDELL
Each with shaped triangular base on three palmette feet, the stand on three sea-god mask and scroll supports hung with cast fruit garlands between, the stem formed as three maenads standing on plinth with crossed thyrsi between, supporting on their heads a detachable basket with openwork vine foliage border, later engraved on plinth with a coat-of-arms with baron's coronet above, fully marked, except two rosettes, stamped underneath Rundell Bridge et Rundell Aurifices Regis et Principis Walliae Regentis Britannias and workshop number 606, and stamped 1 and 2 on baskets
13 1/4 in. (33.5 cm.) high
253 oz. 7 dwt. (7,881 gr.)
The arms are those of Hughes quartering others impaling Grey, for William Lewis, 1st Baron Dinorben (1767-1852), of Kinmel Park, co. Denbigh and his first wife, Charlotte Mary (d.1835), daughter of William Grey, of Backworth, Northumberland, whom he married in 1804.

Provenance

William Lewis, 1st Baron Dinorben (1767-1852), of Kinmel Park, co. Denbigh
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 20 June 1980, lot 41.
A European Collector; Christie's, New York, 20 April 2001, lot 273.

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Harry Williams-Bulkeley International Head of Silver Department

hwilliams-bulkeley@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2666

Lot Essay

LORD DINORBEN AND KINMEL PARK
William Lewis Hughes, 1st Baron Dinorben (1767-1852) was the son of Reverend Edward Hughes, of Kinmel Hall, Denbighshire. His father had bought the Kinmel Park estate in 1786, having acquired great wealth through his marriage to Mary Lewis. She had inherited the Llysdulas estate on Anglesey from her uncle. The estate included Parys Mountain, which became the largest copper mine in Europe. His first wife was Charlotte Mary Grey, the daughter of a Northumbrian landowner William Grey, however she died in 1835. Following Charlotte's death he married Gertrude Smyth in 1840. She was the youngest daughter of Grice Smyth and sister of Penelope (d.1882), who had married Carlo, Prince of Capua (1811-1882) at Gretna Green in 1836. Lord Dinorben's father built a large house designed by Samuel Wyatt (1737-1807) constructed between 1790 and 1810. This was destroyed by fire in 1841 and his son rebuilt an even larger house designed by Thomas Hopper (1776-1856), who had recently completed Penrhyn Castle, Bangor. This in turn was replaced by an even larger edifice designed by architect William Eden Nesfield (1835-1888) for Lord Dinorben's cousin and eventual heir Hugh Robert Hughes (1827-1911).

DESIGN FOR THE DESSERT STANDS
The Royal Goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell produced a number of figural dessert stands with slight variations in design. Rundell's album of designs now preserved in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum includes a drawing of a centerpiece, attributed to Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867) after a design by Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), featuring three bacchic nymphs supporting an openwork basket. A pair of silver-gilt dessert stands of 1810-11, also with bacchic figures set between crossed thrysi, formed part of the Duke of Wellington's Ambassadorial Service and remain at Apsley House (see N. M. Penzer, Paul Storr: The Last of the Goldsmiths, London, 1954 , pl. XXXIII, p. 144). Three silver-gilt dessert stands and a centerpiece with scroll candle branches of similar design to Wellington's plate by Paul Storr were formerly in the collection of Lillian and Morrie Moss (M. Moss, The Lillian and Morrie Moss Collection of Paul Storr Silver, Miami, 1972, pl. 65-66, pp. 128-29).

A drawing of a silver centre piece, by Edward Hodges Baily, c.1820. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

William Lewis Hughes, 1st Baron Dinorben, by Thomas Goff Lupton, 1837. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

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