A pair of George II silver-gilt cups and covers

MAKER'S MARK OF THOMAS HEMING, LONDON, 1757

細節

A pair of George II silver-gilt cups and covers
maker's mark of Thomas Heming, London, 1757
Each on shaped-circular foot with spreading stem chased with a band of fruiting vines, the partly-quilted spirally-fluted campana-shaped bodies applied with trailing vines and insects and with serpent entwined vine tendril handles, the detachable domed covers similarly chased and with detachable vine and fly finials, each engraved with a coat-of-arms beneath an Earl's coronet, the covers with a crest, each marked on bases and covers, the finials apparently unmarked
12in. (30.5cm.) high
114ozs. (3,566grs.)

The arms are those of Stuart for John, 3rd Earl of Bute, K.G. (1713-1792). (2)

來源

Supplied to John, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792).

拍品專文

Each lidded vase, of antique wine-krater form, has a serpentined-fluted or strigilated body rising from a shell-scalloped bowl, while its domed pedestal is likewise supported on a serpentined base. Its 'vine' handles are wreathed by serpents in search of food, with the left hand one attracted by a fly that has settled on a bunch of grapes which serves as a finial for the lid. The general form of the vase relates to one engraved in the Premier Livre de Vases published by Gabriel Huquier (d.1772) and invented by Edmund Bouchardon (d.1762), Sculpteur to Louis XVI. The latter was copied by F. Vivares and advertised in 1771. Also related is the shell-wrapped vase with serpent handles that was engraved by Huquier after designs by Francois Boucher and published in his Livre de Vases par François Boucher, no 5 (no. 199).

A cup with similarly chased body by Thomas Heming, 1753, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 29 April 1987, lot 529. The handles formed as demi satyr herms rather than serpents, feature on the cup which is shown in the top left of Heming's trade card (see previous lot) and the cup illustrated in C. Oman, English Silversmith's Work, Civil and Domestic, London, 1965, no. 144. The design of these cups, which differs from the more usual bombé form and with the profusion of cast and applied ornament, is discussed in Hilary Young's article 'homas Heming and the Tatton Cup', Burlington Magazine, May 1983, p. 285-287.