A PAIR OF GEORGE II SILVER SHELL DISHES

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE II SILVER SHELL DISHES
LONDON, 1742, MAKER'S MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE

Each realistically modelled as a scallop shell, on two shell-form feet each issuing from clusters of sand, shells, and seaweed, the scalloped bowl with a squared hinge-wing engraved twice with a crest, marked on back of hinge-wing--5 1/4 in. (13.3 cm.) wide
(15 oz.) (2)

Provenance

Mrs. M. A. S. Veysey, Sotheby's London, June 17, 1971, lot 175 or 176

Literature

Margaret Holland, An Illustrated Guide to Collecting Silver, 1973, illus. p. 42.
Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby's Directory of Silver, 1984, p.178, no.730.

Lot Essay

P.A.S. Phillips, in Paul De Lamerie, London, 1968, (re-print), illustrates a similar shell of 1748 in the collection of Earl Spencer. (plates CLVI and CLVII). He says of this that it is "one of the surpassing wonders of De Lamerie's creation. If this piece were not made of silver we could imagine that we were holding a veritable shell with its encrustations taken direct from the bed of the sea."

Although often described as butter shells, another use is suggested by an entry in the Wickes Ledger now in The Victoria and Albert Museum, London- "John Trevor Esq. 1740. To 5 scallops for oysters 16oz. 5dwts. at 6/1 per oz. L4.19.2".

The present pair is originally part of a set of four dispersed in 1971. The other pair is in the collection of Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemeszia and illustrated in the catalogue of Hanelove Muller, p. ?????