A set of four George I silver candlesticks

LONDON, CIRCA 1690, MAKER'S MARK I*B WITH CROWN ABOVE

Details

A set of four George I silver
candlesticks
London, circa 1690, maker's mark I*B with crown above
Each on square base with cut corners and with baluster stem and spool-shaped socket, each engraved with a lozenge-of-arms with earl's coronet above, two numbered 1 and two numbered 5, marked on bases, and engraved with scratchweights '14 on 6 p, 14 on 7 p, 14: on:12:p:12:g and 14:on:17:p:12:g', each later engraved with Reksten Collection number 23
6in. (16cm.) high
56ozs. (1,739gr.)
The arms are those of Bennet impaling Nassau for, Isabella, Countess of Arlington, widow of Henry, 1st Earl of Arlington K.G. (1618-1685), and daughter of Louis de Nassau, Lord of Beverwaert and Count of Nassau.
Lord Arlington was Keeper of the Privy Purse after the Restoration and had travelled on the Continent with Charles II during his exile. He was a close confident of the King during the early years of his reign and, with Sir Charles Berkeley, was closely involved with the King's pursuit of his many mistresses. Indeed, his only daughter, Isabella, married one of the King's illegitimate sons, Henry, 1st Duke of Grafton (1663-1690), in 1672. He spent a vast fortune buildling and embellishing his country seat, Euston, in Suffolk. His London house, Goring House, was on the site of Arlington Street. (4)

Provenance

Mrs Fay Plohn; Sotheby's London, 16 July 1970, lot 37
The Hilmar Reksten Collection, Christie's London, 22 May 1991, lot 143

Lot Essay

Although the maker's mark on these candlesticks is very similar to the post-Britannia standard mark of Joseph Barbut, the provenance of the set and its similarity to sets by Pierre Harache of 1685 and 1686, (see Christie's New York, 14 March 1984, lots 207 and 208), suggests a date in the mid 1680s. The scratchweights are similar to those on the Harache candlesticks mentioned above and those at Althorp, of 1683, discussed by A. G. Grimwade in Silver at Althorp, The Connoisseur, March, 1963.

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