These six shell dishes form part of the remarkable Leinster Dinner Service, now in the Al Tajir Collection, exhibited at Chrisite's The Glory of the Godsmith, 3rd-22nd January, 1990, no. 94. The service is a truly rare survival, made for the Duke between 1745 and 1747. The Wickes Ledgers, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum list the service in its entirety, the shells listed as:
1747 The Rt. Hon. Earl of Kildare, Debtor
May 22 ozs dwt cost per oz # s d to 6 Escallop'd Shells 22 5 6/1 6 15 4 to making 15/- each 4 10 to Graving 6 letters and Corts 4 6
From the evidence in the ledgers one would assume that the shells were used for oysters. Elain Barr in George Wickes, Royal Goldsmith 1698-1761, 1980, p. 199 discusses this service at great length and suggests, 'Oysters baked in natural scallop shells with breadcrumbs, cream and butter were popular delicacies in the eighteenth century. Whilst these silver scallop shells make ideal dishes for butter served in the elegant curls favoured today, basins appear to have been used for butter in Wickes' time and two such were traded in by a client in 1738. Whilst they are clearly described as butter basins, this is the only mention of them in the ledgers: they may have gone out of fashion, but it is possible that the sugar basins purchased in such quantities served a dual purpose'