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Lot Essay
'ONE OF THE FINEST AND GRANDEST SETS OF IRISH SILVER'
The present ewer belongs to a highly important group of Irish sideboard plate engraved with the Royal Arms of Queen Anne, all fashioned by the leading Dublin silversmith, Thomas Bolton. The ewer is en suite with a sideboard dish now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no. 55.382). They were also accompanied by two covered beer or wine jugs, one of which is being offered as lot 250 in the present sale, the other, which was last at auction at Christie's, New York, 28 April 1992, lot 262, and is now in the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (obj. no. 2004.13.10). Ellenor Alcorn, in her catalogue of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, op. cit., p. 117, describes the ewer and the accompanying three sideboard objects, as 'one of the finest and grandest sets of Irish silver known'. She observes that they 'suggest the ambition of the Dublin goldsmiths to match the work of their London counterparts'.
She notes that the form of the present ewer is very close to one made by a leading London Huguenot silversmith, Pierre Platel, in 1702 for Henry Gorges (1665-1719) of Eye and Mynde, co. Shropshire. Family records show a strong connection between the Gorges family and Ireland. Dr Robert Gorges of Kilbrew married Jane, daughter of Sir Arthur Loftus, MP for County Wexford between 1639 and 1649 and Provost Marshal of Ulster. Keen to demonstrate his awareness of contemporary designs from London, especially in such a public form as a race prize, it is possible that Bolton saw Platel’s ewer and based the present design on that model, dated only one year earlier.
THOMAS BOLTON AND THE DUKE OF ORMONDE
Ellenor Alcorn suggests that the pieces may have been granted by the Irish House of Lords, the House of Commons or the Dublin city corporation. She notes that the receiver general of Ireland made payments of a large sum to James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde (1665-1745) on 12 February 1703. He was given £3,000 'for his equipage as Lord-Lieutenant and his voyage to Ireland'. On his arrival, in Dublin in May 1703, Ormonde was welcomed at the Tholsel, or city hall, in Dublin by the lord mayor and a committee of aldermen. A member of the committee was Thomas Bolton, Master of Works for the City of Dublin, and the goldsmith who created the four pieces of sideboard plate.
Due to his proximity to the event, it is not surprising that Bolton was the maker of the four pieces. His involvement in these public proceedings is understandable given his prominence in Dublin society. Bolton became a freeman of the Dublin Goldsmiths' Company in 1686, warden in 1690, assay master in 1692, and later rose to become Lord Mayor of Dublin. Despite this tantalising connection to the Duke of Ormonde, as noted by Thomas Sinsteden in his study of the Duke's inventories, op. cit., p. 125, n. 6, the 1705 inventory of the Duke's silver at Dublin and Kilkenny Castles (National Library of Ireland, MS. 2521) does not identify the group.
A RACE PRIZE?
Intriguingly, both the ewer and its sideboard dish bear the inscription ‘Melancholy-Septembre 16-1703’. As Alcorn notes, although it has so far proved impossible to confirm with complete certainty, the inscription suggests that the ewer and basin were a prize for the King’s Plate. The race was established under King William III in 1696, and is known to have been scheduled to take place on the Curragh racecourse in Kildare on 16 September 1703, as mentioned in a letter from Sir Thomas Keightly to Sir Donat O’Brien (J. Ainsworth, ed., The Inchiquin Manuscripts, Dublin, 1961, p. 76).
Archival research has not yet confirmed the name of the winning horse, but it was the duty of the Lord Lieutenant to attend the races, and he may have presented the plate as a prize on behalf of the monarch. An article issued by the Corporation of Horse Breeders of County Down in 1704 stated that ‘there shall be Yearly for ever three Plates to be run for, the Greater Plate to be the value of Fifty Pounds Sterling, and the second Plate the value of Ten Pounds Sterling, the fashion each included’, which confirms that silver was offered as a race prize.
Queen Anne is known to have followed her Stuart ancestors in her patronage of 'The Sport of Kings'. She instituted the prize of a gold cup to be raced for in Yorkshire. Only a handful of the gold covered cups, presented between 1702 and 1714, have survived. The 1713 trophy, by Lewis Mettayer, was sold at Christie’s, London, 12 July 1995, lot 136. In common with the present lot it also bore the Royal Arms of Queen Anne.
The present ewer belongs to a highly important group of Irish sideboard plate engraved with the Royal Arms of Queen Anne, all fashioned by the leading Dublin silversmith, Thomas Bolton. The ewer is en suite with a sideboard dish now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no. 55.382). They were also accompanied by two covered beer or wine jugs, one of which is being offered as lot 250 in the present sale, the other, which was last at auction at Christie's, New York, 28 April 1992, lot 262, and is now in the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (obj. no. 2004.13.10). Ellenor Alcorn, in her catalogue of the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, op. cit., p. 117, describes the ewer and the accompanying three sideboard objects, as 'one of the finest and grandest sets of Irish silver known'. She observes that they 'suggest the ambition of the Dublin goldsmiths to match the work of their London counterparts'.
She notes that the form of the present ewer is very close to one made by a leading London Huguenot silversmith, Pierre Platel, in 1702 for Henry Gorges (1665-1719) of Eye and Mynde, co. Shropshire. Family records show a strong connection between the Gorges family and Ireland. Dr Robert Gorges of Kilbrew married Jane, daughter of Sir Arthur Loftus, MP for County Wexford between 1639 and 1649 and Provost Marshal of Ulster. Keen to demonstrate his awareness of contemporary designs from London, especially in such a public form as a race prize, it is possible that Bolton saw Platel’s ewer and based the present design on that model, dated only one year earlier.
THOMAS BOLTON AND THE DUKE OF ORMONDE
Ellenor Alcorn suggests that the pieces may have been granted by the Irish House of Lords, the House of Commons or the Dublin city corporation. She notes that the receiver general of Ireland made payments of a large sum to James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde (1665-1745) on 12 February 1703. He was given £3,000 'for his equipage as Lord-Lieutenant and his voyage to Ireland'. On his arrival, in Dublin in May 1703, Ormonde was welcomed at the Tholsel, or city hall, in Dublin by the lord mayor and a committee of aldermen. A member of the committee was Thomas Bolton, Master of Works for the City of Dublin, and the goldsmith who created the four pieces of sideboard plate.
Due to his proximity to the event, it is not surprising that Bolton was the maker of the four pieces. His involvement in these public proceedings is understandable given his prominence in Dublin society. Bolton became a freeman of the Dublin Goldsmiths' Company in 1686, warden in 1690, assay master in 1692, and later rose to become Lord Mayor of Dublin. Despite this tantalising connection to the Duke of Ormonde, as noted by Thomas Sinsteden in his study of the Duke's inventories, op. cit., p. 125, n. 6, the 1705 inventory of the Duke's silver at Dublin and Kilkenny Castles (National Library of Ireland, MS. 2521) does not identify the group.
A RACE PRIZE?
Intriguingly, both the ewer and its sideboard dish bear the inscription ‘Melancholy-Septembre 16-1703’. As Alcorn notes, although it has so far proved impossible to confirm with complete certainty, the inscription suggests that the ewer and basin were a prize for the King’s Plate. The race was established under King William III in 1696, and is known to have been scheduled to take place on the Curragh racecourse in Kildare on 16 September 1703, as mentioned in a letter from Sir Thomas Keightly to Sir Donat O’Brien (J. Ainsworth, ed., The Inchiquin Manuscripts, Dublin, 1961, p. 76).
Archival research has not yet confirmed the name of the winning horse, but it was the duty of the Lord Lieutenant to attend the races, and he may have presented the plate as a prize on behalf of the monarch. An article issued by the Corporation of Horse Breeders of County Down in 1704 stated that ‘there shall be Yearly for ever three Plates to be run for, the Greater Plate to be the value of Fifty Pounds Sterling, and the second Plate the value of Ten Pounds Sterling, the fashion each included’, which confirms that silver was offered as a race prize.
Queen Anne is known to have followed her Stuart ancestors in her patronage of 'The Sport of Kings'. She instituted the prize of a gold cup to be raced for in Yorkshire. Only a handful of the gold covered cups, presented between 1702 and 1714, have survived. The 1713 trophy, by Lewis Mettayer, was sold at Christie’s, London, 12 July 1995, lot 136. In common with the present lot it also bore the Royal Arms of Queen Anne.