A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT DESSERT SERVICE

Details

A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT DESSERT SERVICE
MAKER'S MARK OF WILLIAM TRAIES, LONDON, 1829

Fiddle and thread pattern, the knives with honeysuckle-chased blades, the terminals engraved with three crests and a Marquess's coronet, comprising:

Twenty-four dessert spoons
Twenty-four dessert forks
Six fruit spoons with fluted bowls
Two ice spades
Two ladles, one with pierced bowl
Grape scissors with cast vine handles
(123oz., 3850gr.)
Twenty-four dessert knives with silver-gilt blades
Two carving forks with silver-gilt tines
Two carving knife with steel blade, stamped Green & Ward&i

In fitted wood chest, the cover with inset plaque inscribed Marchioness of Hastings Countess of Loudon

(87 pieces) (86)

Lot Essay

Flora, daughter of James, 5th Earl of Loudon, was born in 1780 and in 1817, as suo jure Countess of Loudon, married Francis, Lord Hastings. Shortly after his marriage he was made Viscount Loudon and Marquess of Hastings. Hastings in earlier life had been a soldier and had served at Bunker Hill and later commanded a division under Cornwallis. In 1817 he was sent to India where he crushed the Pindarees ("bands of freebooters in the central provinces of India" - Complete Peerage). In 1824 he was appointed Governor of Malta. He died on board H.M.S. Revenge off Naples aged 71 on November 26, 1826. Lady Hastings died in 1840 at Kelburne Castle and was buried at Loudon. Her husband's right hand, which at his request had been cut off on board the Revenge after his death and preserved, was buried with her.