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Lot Essay
The decoration of this ewer is almost identical to that of a ewer in the royal toilet service made by Thomas Heming in 1766 for Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, posthumous daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and sister to George III. Now in the collection of Kunstindustrie Museum, Copenhagen, Queen Caroline's silver-gilt toilet service consists of thirty pieces in a fitted case. Arthur Grimwade surmised that Heming reused the mouldings of the Royal service for another toilet service that he made two years later, the Williams-Wynne service ("Royal Toilet Services in Scandinavia," The Connoisseur, April 1956, p. 175).
This present ewer was most likely part of a toilet service which served as the prototype of both the Danish Royal service and the Williams-Wynne service. An almost identically decorated silver-gilt vase-shaped powder pot by Heming, 1758, engraved with the Royal Crown and cypher of George II, sold at Christie's, London, March 20, 1963, lot 57. Another silver-gilt ewer by Heming, circa 1755, similarly decorated but only 11in. high, was in the Bernal Collection and sold at Christie's, London, May 3, 1910, lot 259.
This present ewer was most likely part of a toilet service which served as the prototype of both the Danish Royal service and the Williams-Wynne service. An almost identically decorated silver-gilt vase-shaped powder pot by Heming, 1758, engraved with the Royal Crown and cypher of George II, sold at Christie's, London, March 20, 1963, lot 57. Another silver-gilt ewer by Heming, circa 1755, similarly decorated but only 11in. high, was in the Bernal Collection and sold at Christie's, London, May 3, 1910, lot 259.