TWO GEORGE III SILVER-GILT WINE COOLERS AND STANDS

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TWO GEORGE III SILVER-GILT WINE COOLERS AND STANDS
LONDON, 1804, MAKER'S MARK OF DIGBY SCOTT & BENJAMIN SMITH AND 1810, MAKER'S MARK OF BENJAMIN & JAMES SMITH, THE FIRST WITH GEORGE IV LINER AND COLLAR

Each of square tapering form with canted corners, raised on four massive splayed paw feet headed by sphinx heads and applied with dentilated semi-circular panels chased with stylized foliage on a matted ground, the sides applied with a band of grapevine above elaborate applied drapery cartouches enclosing escutcheons later engraved with a coat-of-arms and motto, with two lion-mask and grapevine pendant ring handles and egg-and-dart rims, with removable dentilated collars and cylindrical liners, the square pedestal bases with canted corners, applied with conforming grapevine on a matted ground, marked on stand, bases, collars and liner, the collar and liner of the first part-marked with George IV hallmarks circa 1827 -- 11 in. (27.9 cm.) high
(312 oz.)

拍品專文

Benjamin Smith, the son of Ralph Smith of Birmingham, removed to London sometime before October 4, 1802 when he entered his first mark, in partnership with Digby Scott. The firm, located in Limekiln Lane, Greenwich, worked almost exclusively for the Royal Goldsmiths Rundell and Bridge. The partnership with Scott was evidently dissolved in 1807, when Smith entered a mark on his own. In 1809 he entered another mark in partnership with his brother James. As Grimwade remarked, "There seems little doubt...that Smith was of a difficult and probably irascible nature and this is borne out by the variations of his entries of marks with and without partners" [The London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, their Marks and Lives, 3rd ed., London, 1990, p. 662]

A pair of similar sau;ce tureens and stands, of 1808 with the maker's mark of Benjamin Smith, is in the Al-Tajir Collection [see The Glory of the Goldsmith, Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, exhibition cat., Christie's, London, no. 124]

A pair of identical wine coolers and stands of 1804, maker's mark of Scott & Smith, was sold Christie's, London, June 13, 1945, lot 52.