MARK OF DAVID WILLAUME, LONDON, 1700

Details

A FINE WILLIAM III SILVER-GILT EWER
MARK OF DAVID WILLAUME, LONDON, 1700
Of helmet-form, on gadrooned spreading foot, the lower body applied with strapwork calyx, with gadrooned upper mid-band, applied with the head of Diana and a stylized shell beneath the lip, the handle formed as a scrolling female herm, the front engraved with a coat-of-arms within a foliate and scalework cartouche, marked near handle
12 in. (30.5 cm.) high; 66 oz. (2076 gr.)

Provenance

Christie's, London, 25 May 1948, lot 87
William Ropner, Sotheby's, 24 April 1958, lot 48
The Robertson Collection of Important English Silver, Christie's, New York, 27 October 1987, lot 443

Literature

Arthur Grimwade, "Period Ornamentation on English Silver of Queen Anne and George I", Apollo, March 1953, p. 87, fig. V
The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, 1989, no. 45. p. 66-67
Prized Possessions from Private Homes, The Royal Ontario Museum, 1968, no. 689, p. 141

Exhibited

Loan Exhibition of Old English Plate, 25 Park Lane, London, 1929, plate XI, no. 261
The Royal Ontario Museum, Prized Possessions from Private Homes, 1968, no. 689
"The Glory of the Goldsmith: Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection," Christie's, London, 1989, no. 45

Lot Essay

The arms are those of Smith, baronets, Hatherton, Cheshire (extinct 1706) or of Smith, baronets, of Upton in Westham, Essex (extinct 1852)
A similar ewer by Willaume, also 1700, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum and illustrated in J.F. Hayward, Huguenot Silver in England 1688-1727, 1959, plate 34b. The same handle appears on another silver-gilt ewer by Willaume, the property of the Duke of Abercorn, exhibited in The Treasure Houses of Britain and illustrated in the catalogue, pp.182-183, no. 113, and on another example by Willaume of 1702, sold Sotheby's, June 27, 1963, lot 52 (illustrated by Vanessa Brett, The Sotheby's Directory of Silver, 1984, p.161, fig. 632) and on several ewers of 1700 by Pierre Harache.

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