Lot Essay
A number of similar cast cream jugs are known, particularly two silver-gilt examples. One is in the Gilbert Collection, Los Angeles, T. Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, no. 54, ill. p. 219; the other in the Huntingdon Collection, San Marino, California, Robert R. Wark, British Silver in the Huntingdon Collection, no. 151, ill. p. 63.
Although all known examples are unmarked, they are usually attributed to Paul de Lamerie on stylistic grounds, especially the quilting to the body which is also found on a coffee pot by him of 1731, now in the Stirling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. However, in The Connoisseur, June 1960, Arthur Grimwade observed that "the body, with its overlapping leaves at the base is reminiscent of Chelsea Porcelain techniques and we are...brought up against the possibility of [Nicholas] Sprimont as its author. When we consider further the dolphin and shell feet this view seems to gain further support." This theory becomes ever more plausible when the jug is compared with a design for a salt cellar, with very similar feet, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, attributed to Nicholas Sprimont
Although all known examples are unmarked, they are usually attributed to Paul de Lamerie on stylistic grounds, especially the quilting to the body which is also found on a coffee pot by him of 1731, now in the Stirling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown. However, in The Connoisseur, June 1960, Arthur Grimwade observed that "the body, with its overlapping leaves at the base is reminiscent of Chelsea Porcelain techniques and we are...brought up against the possibility of [Nicholas] Sprimont as its author. When we consider further the dolphin and shell feet this view seems to gain further support." This theory becomes ever more plausible when the jug is compared with a design for a salt cellar, with very similar feet, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, attributed to Nicholas Sprimont