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Lot Essay
This fine chinoiserie porringer and cover is one of the largest and heaviest recorded. It is also important as a rare survival of a 17th century racing prize cup, the earliest recorded being the Brampton Moor Cup of 1666. While little is known of the 17th century races at Bakewell in Derbyshire it is known that 'at Bakewell a meeting was held at irregular intervals during the first forty years of the eighteenth century. Three days' racing took place in 1728, one race for galloways, give and take, another for horses and the third for 'actual' or as we should say bona fide hunters. Meetings of somewhat similar nature were held in 1732 and 1739, after which latter year they appear to have been abandoned.' (The Victoria Histories of the Counties of England, A History of Derbyshire, Vol. II, p. 290)
The current thinking on chinoiserie silver, its design sources, makers and chasers is perhaps best summed up by Philippa Glanville in her recent essay 'English 17th Century Chinoiserie Silver' (introduction to the Jaime Ortiz-Patino Collection, English 17th century Chinoiserie Silver, Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1992). For many years there has been discussion about the appearance of this style of chasing on well over 250 objects or sets of objects made mainly, but far from entirely, in London. While recorded objects date from 1679-1697, the majority fall into the period 1680-1685.
Glanville has pointed out that at least 30 toilet-services for example are known with chinoiserie decoration and are by numerous different makers such as Ralph Leake, Thomas Jenkins, Anthony Nelme, William Fowle. Jacob Bodendick, Benjamin Traherne and the maker's using the marks D or ID in script and AH. The varying quality of such chasing has long been recognized and is clear even from a cursory examination of the 20 varying lots in the Patino catalogue (op. cit.).
The chasing of the present cup has all the strength and freshness of that on the great Brownlow tankards of 1686, by the maker now known to be John Duck (The Brownlow sale, Christie's London, 29 May 1963 and the Patino sale, op. cit. lot 143). However other chased chinoiserie decoration can be very weak (eg Patino, op. cit. lot 149). Given these variations the idea of a central chinoiserie chasing workshop initally proposed by C. Oman in, (Caroline Silver, London, 1970, p. 16), is no longer accepted.
The sources for the various figures and backgrounds in chinoiserie chasing are many and include illustrated travel books, Chinese porcelain, Indian cottons and Oriental laquer work. Philippa Glanville has also pointed out how the Restoration theatre encouraged the interest in exotic design from the Far East. It should also be mentioned that by this date actual examples of Chinese silver were being imported.
The remarkable Chinese teapot marked on importation to London in 1682, now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, demonstrates the characteristic cast, as opposed to flat-chased decoration, of such imports (see Christie's New York, 18 April 1989, lot 589, for a full discussion on these importations, and Christie's New York, 20 October 1998, lot 420, for an unmarked silver-gilt example of approximately the same date). These imports seemed to have spawned a few direct copies in England but these cast pieces distinctly different to the 'home-grown' chinoiserie objects flat-chased with large standing exotic figures, birds and foliage.
Perhaps because of the wealth of design sources, it is suprisingly difficult to identify even the very distinctive individual figures, as reappearing on more than one chinoiserie object. In this regard, it is particularly interesting that the figure looking at the sun, to the right of the cartouche on the present cup of 1690, is clearly taken from the same source as that on the Mildmay monteith, by George Garthorne, made six years earlier, (Christie's London, 27 April 1983 and the Patino collection, op. cit., lot 138. This use of a common design source some six years later clearly indicates the existence of a print or book being used by both chasers.
The current thinking on chinoiserie silver, its design sources, makers and chasers is perhaps best summed up by Philippa Glanville in her recent essay 'English 17th Century Chinoiserie Silver' (introduction to the Jaime Ortiz-Patino Collection, English 17th century Chinoiserie Silver, Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1992). For many years there has been discussion about the appearance of this style of chasing on well over 250 objects or sets of objects made mainly, but far from entirely, in London. While recorded objects date from 1679-1697, the majority fall into the period 1680-1685.
Glanville has pointed out that at least 30 toilet-services for example are known with chinoiserie decoration and are by numerous different makers such as Ralph Leake, Thomas Jenkins, Anthony Nelme, William Fowle. Jacob Bodendick, Benjamin Traherne and the maker's using the marks D or ID in script and AH. The varying quality of such chasing has long been recognized and is clear even from a cursory examination of the 20 varying lots in the Patino catalogue (op. cit.).
The chasing of the present cup has all the strength and freshness of that on the great Brownlow tankards of 1686, by the maker now known to be John Duck (The Brownlow sale, Christie's London, 29 May 1963 and the Patino sale, op. cit. lot 143). However other chased chinoiserie decoration can be very weak (eg Patino, op. cit. lot 149). Given these variations the idea of a central chinoiserie chasing workshop initally proposed by C. Oman in, (Caroline Silver, London, 1970, p. 16), is no longer accepted.
The sources for the various figures and backgrounds in chinoiserie chasing are many and include illustrated travel books, Chinese porcelain, Indian cottons and Oriental laquer work. Philippa Glanville has also pointed out how the Restoration theatre encouraged the interest in exotic design from the Far East. It should also be mentioned that by this date actual examples of Chinese silver were being imported.
The remarkable Chinese teapot marked on importation to London in 1682, now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, demonstrates the characteristic cast, as opposed to flat-chased decoration, of such imports (see Christie's New York, 18 April 1989, lot 589, for a full discussion on these importations, and Christie's New York, 20 October 1998, lot 420, for an unmarked silver-gilt example of approximately the same date). These imports seemed to have spawned a few direct copies in England but these cast pieces distinctly different to the 'home-grown' chinoiserie objects flat-chased with large standing exotic figures, birds and foliage.
Perhaps because of the wealth of design sources, it is suprisingly difficult to identify even the very distinctive individual figures, as reappearing on more than one chinoiserie object. In this regard, it is particularly interesting that the figure looking at the sun, to the right of the cartouche on the present cup of 1690, is clearly taken from the same source as that on the Mildmay monteith, by George Garthorne, made six years earlier, (Christie's London, 27 April 1983 and the Patino collection, op. cit., lot 138. This use of a common design source some six years later clearly indicates the existence of a print or book being used by both chasers.