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Lot Essay
The attribution of the design for this well-known model to William Theed is based on its close similarity to Theed's bronze sculpture "Thetis returning from Vulcan with the Arms of Achilles" now in the Royal Collection. This attribution is strengthened by the inclusion of a drawing for this model on a rectangular base in an album of designs for Rundell's, entitled "Designs for Plate by John Flaxman, etc.". The painter and sculptor William Theed (1764-1817) was employed by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell in 1803 to supply designs and worked as their chief modeller. He had previously worked for Josiah Wedgwood as had his friend and later fellow designer for Rundell's, John Flaxman.
There are at least three variations of this model, each with differing base. Most of the known examples were marked either by Paul Storr or William Pitts, who also supplied Rundell's (illustrated in A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Antiquity Revisited, English and French Silver-Gilt from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997, pp. 47-49, cat. nos. 6 and 7 and J. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, n.d., cat. no 37).
The exact same model as on the present salt-cellars was used by Paul Storr in 1822 for a set of eight salt-cellars now in the Al Tajir collection (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Glory of the Goldsmith, London, 1989, p. 189, cat. no. 198). The successor firms to Paul Storr - Storr and Co., Storr and Mortimer, Mortimer and Hunt and then Hunt and Roskell - clearly then retained the designs and casting molds for this particular model.
There are at least three variations of this model, each with differing base. Most of the known examples were marked either by Paul Storr or William Pitts, who also supplied Rundell's (illustrated in A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Antiquity Revisited, English and French Silver-Gilt from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997, pp. 47-49, cat. nos. 6 and 7 and J. Bliss, The Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, n.d., cat. no 37).
The exact same model as on the present salt-cellars was used by Paul Storr in 1822 for a set of eight salt-cellars now in the Al Tajir collection (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Glory of the Goldsmith, London, 1989, p. 189, cat. no. 198). The successor firms to Paul Storr - Storr and Co., Storr and Mortimer, Mortimer and Hunt and then Hunt and Roskell - clearly then retained the designs and casting molds for this particular model.