Lot Essay
The body is later chased with the Royal monogram of Queen Anne and the pricked inscription 'Nata 6 Febr 1665', the birth date of the Queen. It has been suggested that the further pricked inscription HG EG are for Holstein Glucksberg Euting Gottorp, the names of Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne. They were married in 1683 and it is possible that this inscription commemorates their engagement, although in 1681 Prince George of Hanover had been proposed as a possible suitor for Anne.
Leopold de Rothschild acquired the porringer from Garrard in 1895. He returned in 1911 and showed the piece to H. Pearson of Garrard. When the porringer was sold in 1982 it was accompanied by a letter from Pearson to Rothschild which discussed the piece. Pearson writes:
'I have traced the entry in our books of the antique silver porringer, and you bought it in May 1895 for ¨52:10:0. What an increase has taken place in its value since then! Commonwealth plate bids fair to become extinct in the market, and I believe this Cup would realise at the present day nearer Four Hundred Pounds. The piece is so interesting in its ornamentation and inscription. Made in 1657, some 8 years before Queen Anne was born, and engraved with a shield and the inscription 'punched' in as was greatly then the method in 1681. 24 years later, when Queen Anne was about sixteen years old, it is quite possible it was given on her Confirmation, as the date of her birth 1665, was printed with that of 1681. The fact of the cypher AR with the Sovereign Crown would show that these were added after she became Queen, and the fact that the chasing is quite in the 'William and Mary' style would point to the inference that it was done soon after Accession, probably for some special gift.'
Pearson's suggestion that the porringer was a confirmation gift seems unlikely as Anne was confirmed in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, in 1676. It is more probable that the piece was given as a christening gift and later chased with the Queen's cypher after her accession to the throne in 1702. This was not an uncommon practice with Royal silver at that date. A. E. Jones in The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, London, 1911, p. 16 observes that a large Charles II charger of circa 1670, now identified as the work of Robert Smithier, was later chased with a crowned rose and the cypher of Queen Anne. A pair of wall sconces by the same maker circa 1670, illustrated in Jones, op. cit., p. 44, were likewise embellished in the reign of William and Mary with the addition of the monarchs' cypher and Royal crowns.
Leopold de Rothschild acquired the porringer from Garrard in 1895. He returned in 1911 and showed the piece to H. Pearson of Garrard. When the porringer was sold in 1982 it was accompanied by a letter from Pearson to Rothschild which discussed the piece. Pearson writes:
'I have traced the entry in our books of the antique silver porringer, and you bought it in May 1895 for ¨52:10:0. What an increase has taken place in its value since then! Commonwealth plate bids fair to become extinct in the market, and I believe this Cup would realise at the present day nearer Four Hundred Pounds. The piece is so interesting in its ornamentation and inscription. Made in 1657, some 8 years before Queen Anne was born, and engraved with a shield and the inscription 'punched' in as was greatly then the method in 1681. 24 years later, when Queen Anne was about sixteen years old, it is quite possible it was given on her Confirmation, as the date of her birth 1665, was printed with that of 1681. The fact of the cypher AR with the Sovereign Crown would show that these were added after she became Queen, and the fact that the chasing is quite in the 'William and Mary' style would point to the inference that it was done soon after Accession, probably for some special gift.'
Pearson's suggestion that the porringer was a confirmation gift seems unlikely as Anne was confirmed in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, in 1676. It is more probable that the piece was given as a christening gift and later chased with the Queen's cypher after her accession to the throne in 1702. This was not an uncommon practice with Royal silver at that date. A. E. Jones in The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, London, 1911, p. 16 observes that a large Charles II charger of circa 1670, now identified as the work of Robert Smithier, was later chased with a crowned rose and the cypher of Queen Anne. A pair of wall sconces by the same maker circa 1670, illustrated in Jones, op. cit., p. 44, were likewise embellished in the reign of William and Mary with the addition of the monarchs' cypher and Royal crowns.