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Lot Essay
Markham, op. cit., suggests that these flagons, together with a paten, cup and bread-holder, all silver-gilt and marked for 1638, were probably given to the church by Sir Christopher Hatton (1605-1670). This suggestion is probably based on the proximity of Kirby Hall, home of the Hatton family, which borders on Gretton. Sir Christopher Hatton was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles I. He was an ardent royalist and was raised to the peerage on 29 July, 1643 as Baron Hatton of Kirby. During the Commonwealth he lived in France in the circle of Henrietta Maria. At the Restoration he was appointed a member of the Privy Council and Governor of Guernsey.
The mark of RS has been attributed by John Culme to Roger Stevens (see Culme, The Goose in a Dotted Circle: a Mystery of the Seventeenth Century Investigated, The Jaime Ortiz Patino Collection, 21 May 1992). In the article Culme discusses John Duck's relationship with Roger Stevens to whom he was apprenticed in 1669. He records that Roger Stevens (d.1673) of Bedborough, Wiltshire, was apprenticed to Hugh Stevenson, goldsmith, in 1616, and gained his freedom in 1625. In 1654 he married Katherine Marsh. Culme bases his attribution of the mark, RS, a mullet above and below, to Stevens because its use coincides with Stevens' freedom, and because a similar mark, KS, mullet above and below, is attributable to his wife Katherine who ran his business after his death in 1673, using her own mark. Her mark ceased in 1677 when John Duck was granted his freedom and presumably took over the running of the workshop, marrying the Stevens' daughter in 1678. The RS mark appears mostly on flagons, cups, ewers, tankards and porringers and the Church of St.-Martin-in-the-Field had a large flagon with the same mark.
The mark of RS has been attributed by John Culme to Roger Stevens (see Culme, The Goose in a Dotted Circle: a Mystery of the Seventeenth Century Investigated, The Jaime Ortiz Patino Collection, 21 May 1992). In the article Culme discusses John Duck's relationship with Roger Stevens to whom he was apprenticed in 1669. He records that Roger Stevens (d.1673) of Bedborough, Wiltshire, was apprenticed to Hugh Stevenson, goldsmith, in 1616, and gained his freedom in 1625. In 1654 he married Katherine Marsh. Culme bases his attribution of the mark, RS, a mullet above and below, to Stevens because its use coincides with Stevens' freedom, and because a similar mark, KS, mullet above and below, is attributable to his wife Katherine who ran his business after his death in 1673, using her own mark. Her mark ceased in 1677 when John Duck was granted his freedom and presumably took over the running of the workshop, marrying the Stevens' daughter in 1678. The RS mark appears mostly on flagons, cups, ewers, tankards and porringers and the Church of St.-Martin-in-the-Field had a large flagon with the same mark.