MAKER'S MARK OF HENRY CORNMAN, LONDON, 1814

Details

A George III silver-gilt inkstand
Maker's mark of Henry Cornman, London, 1814
In the Roman style formed as a cistern on four acanthus leaf-capped scroll, anthemion and lion's paw feet, applied with two lion's masks and four drop-ring handles, fitted with three detachable silver-gilt mounted inkpots, the detachable covers with foliage borders and bud finials, the side engraved with Greek inscription, on a black slate stand, marked on body and pot mounts, the covers unmarked
the inkstand 7½in. (10.5cm.) long
the stand 10½in. (27cm.) long
34ozs. (1,072grs.)

Literature

H. Young, Philip Cornman: a biographical note, The Silver Society Journal, no.8, Autumn 1986, p.484

Lot Essay

Hilary Young (The Silver Society Journal, Autumn 1996, no.8, p.484, Philip Cornman: a biographical note) points out that there is a possibility that the architect John Pater Gandy may have designed this inkstand. The Memoranda of the Society of Dilettanti record that on 14 March 1814 "the two Draughtsmen of the Society, Mr Gandy & Bedford" were to be paid ¨25 each "that they shall lay out the same in the purchase each of them of a piece of Plate according to their own wishes..." However, again as Young points out, this inkstand seems to derive from elements taken from cisterns illustrated by C. H. Tatham in Ancient Architectural Ornament (plates 92 and 93) to which we know either Philip, or his son Henry, Cornman subscribed in 1803 (see lot 77 in this sale for a centrepiece by Philip Cornman based on a Tatham design).

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