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Lot Essay
Charles Bowles was left the estate of North Aston circa 1740 by Charles Oldfield, a fellow Jamaican landowner. He was the son of William Bowles Esq. of Windsor and Clewer, Berkshire and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles Modyford 3rd Bt. (d.1687). Charles Bowles married Jane Clarke (d.1767) in the early 1740s. His grandson, Charles Oldfield Bowles rented out the estate for most his tenure, finially selling in 1862, having found finding dowrys for his eight sisters too much for his finances. The house had 17th century origins but was heavily remodelled in the Jacobeathan style in the 1860s, so much so that N. Pevsner described it as 'elephantine' in his guide to Oxfordshire. This almost completely masked work carried out by John Yenn, for Charles Bowles' son, Oldfield Bowles, in the 1780s.
Charles Bowles was educated at Queens College, Oxford where he matriculated in 1724. He died intestate at Bath in 1780. The list and valuation of his property on the Wakefield Plantation, Jamaica, prepared by the administrators of his estate, records slaves, livestock and buildings valued at £9,363. A list of Jamaican landowners published in V. L. Oliver, Caribbeana, 1916, vol IV, gives Bowles' land holding as 5,204 acres.
The high quality of the chasing and casting found on this salver is typical of Lamerie's high rococo pieces. The cast feet, each formed as a charmingly modelled 'emerging' lion, are of a particular type found on a number of Lamerie salvers of the period. Examples include a pair of salvers marked for 1741, commissioned by one of Lamerie's greatest patrons Algernon, 6th Earl of Mountrath (1689-1744), which are now in the Gilbert Collection and are illustrated in T. Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles, 1988, p.256-259. Also notable is the use of the lion on the kettle-stand or salver for the Franks tea-service of 1742. David Franks (1720-1794) was a merchant with interests in the West Indies, but unlike Bowles his base was Philadelphia. He and Bowles, together with such patrons as John Hill (1689-1753), who is thought to have commissioned the extraordinary turtle tureen by Lamerie of 1750, form a small yet significant group of Lamerie clients with West Indian interests.
Charles Bowles was educated at Queens College, Oxford where he matriculated in 1724. He died intestate at Bath in 1780. The list and valuation of his property on the Wakefield Plantation, Jamaica, prepared by the administrators of his estate, records slaves, livestock and buildings valued at £9,363. A list of Jamaican landowners published in V. L. Oliver, Caribbeana, 1916, vol IV, gives Bowles' land holding as 5,204 acres.
The high quality of the chasing and casting found on this salver is typical of Lamerie's high rococo pieces. The cast feet, each formed as a charmingly modelled 'emerging' lion, are of a particular type found on a number of Lamerie salvers of the period. Examples include a pair of salvers marked for 1741, commissioned by one of Lamerie's greatest patrons Algernon, 6th Earl of Mountrath (1689-1744), which are now in the Gilbert Collection and are illustrated in T. Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles, 1988, p.256-259. Also notable is the use of the lion on the kettle-stand or salver for the Franks tea-service of 1742. David Franks (1720-1794) was a merchant with interests in the West Indies, but unlike Bowles his base was Philadelphia. He and Bowles, together with such patrons as John Hill (1689-1753), who is thought to have commissioned the extraordinary turtle tureen by Lamerie of 1750, form a small yet significant group of Lamerie clients with West Indian interests.