MARK OF CHRISTIAN HILLAN, LONDON, CIRCA 1740

Details

A GEORGE II SILVER-GILT CREAM JUG
Mark of Christian Hillan, London, circa 1740
Inverted pear-shaped on circular pedestal foot, with floral scroll handle, the helmet-shaped spout with cast mask below, the body applied with figures and cows in a country landscape, cast and chased with grapes, floral garlands and shell borders, engraved with a crest in a cartouche, the base also engraved with scratchweight 9=2, marked on base with maker's mark struck three times
5in. (12.5cm.) high; 9oz. (286gr.)

Lot Essay

A Christian Hillan cream boat dating to 1740 is decorated in a similar manner and is illustrated in Rococo Art and Design in Hogarth's England, 1984, p. 110, G10. The cast mask spout and bovine iconography are an apparent reference to the legend of Zeus and Io, in which Zeus turned Io into a heifer to protect his love from Hera's wrath. The cast mask may represent Hera. A silver-gilt cream bowl featuring similar iconography is struck with Hillan's mark and lion passant. Circa 1740, the bowl is illustrated in Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby's Directory of Silver, 1986, no. 895.

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