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Lot Essay
It would appear that these candlesticks are a pair from a set of three pairs which were commissioned by John, 1st Duke of Marleborough from the Lille silversmith Elie Pacot during his campaigns in Flanders. Marlborough had sailed for the Continent on 29 March 1708, landing at the Hague. In the following months he fought the battles of Oudenarde in July 1708 and Malplaquet in September 1709. Lille had fallen in October 1708 following 120 days of bloody siege. Following the fall of Lille gifts were made by the town to the beseiging army and a number Allied officers commissioned silver from the town's silversmiths. N. and I. Cartier in their article 'The Elie Pacot Surtout', The Silver Society Journal No. 6, 1994, pp. 296-301 note that the gifts of the town are recorded in the Magistrate's Account Books. They record a number of these Allied purchases including the magnificent surtout by Pacot, nineteen pieces from which were sold from the collection of late Lord Gwydir at Christie's in 1829. They also record a pair of candlesticks by Mathais Gruart of Lille, 1710-11, given to a church in Rotterdam by an officer returning from the campaign. Another pair of candlesticks, in this instance also by Pacot, entered the collection of the Royal Jewel House and were presented to Philip, 4th Duke of Chesterfield as part of his grant of plate for his embassy to the Hague in 1727. At this time the London silversmith Paul Crespin was commisssioned to make cast copies of the candlesticks.
Recent research by Nicole Cartier in the Althorp Papers at the British Library has uncovered a facinating and complicated provenance for the Marlborough/Bridgewater candlesticks. They first appear in an inventory prepared on 23 September 1713 when the Duke's silver was being transported to Aix-la-Chappelle and Antwerp. Marlborough was in self-imposed exile having been dismissed from all his offices by Queen Anne in December 1711. Nicole Cartier notes that the extensive inventories kept by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough record the candlesticks from 1 March 1714 and also the intended gift of them to her daughter Anne, Countess of Sunderland. Following Anne's death in 1716 the candlesticks described as 'Candlesticks La[dy] Sunderland' were sent to Blenheim Palace. One pair from the set are later listed as 'a pair of these that were Lady Sunderland' being given to John Spencer (1708-1746), son of Anne, Countess of Sunderland. Presumably the present pair were intended for Elizabeth, second daughter of the Duke and Duchess Marlborough and due to her early death in March 1713/14 they passed to her widower Scrope, 1st Duke of Bridgewater.
We are grateful to Nicole Cartier for the information above, which forms part of her forthcoming book on Lille silver L'Orfèvre de Lille.
Recent research by Nicole Cartier in the Althorp Papers at the British Library has uncovered a facinating and complicated provenance for the Marlborough/Bridgewater candlesticks. They first appear in an inventory prepared on 23 September 1713 when the Duke's silver was being transported to Aix-la-Chappelle and Antwerp. Marlborough was in self-imposed exile having been dismissed from all his offices by Queen Anne in December 1711. Nicole Cartier notes that the extensive inventories kept by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough record the candlesticks from 1 March 1714 and also the intended gift of them to her daughter Anne, Countess of Sunderland. Following Anne's death in 1716 the candlesticks described as 'Candlesticks La[dy] Sunderland' were sent to Blenheim Palace. One pair from the set are later listed as 'a pair of these that were Lady Sunderland' being given to John Spencer (1708-1746), son of Anne, Countess of Sunderland. Presumably the present pair were intended for Elizabeth, second daughter of the Duke and Duchess Marlborough and due to her early death in March 1713/14 they passed to her widower Scrope, 1st Duke of Bridgewater.
We are grateful to Nicole Cartier for the information above, which forms part of her forthcoming book on Lille silver L'Orfèvre de Lille.