MARK OF CHARLES KANDLER, LONDON, CIRCA 1730

German-born Charles Kandler brought a Dresden-influenced style to London when he emigrated to England, some time before 1727 when his mark was first registered at Goldsmiths' Hall. While German characteristics have long been recognized in Kandler's silver, only recently have scholars discovered that Kandler was in fact the older brother of the famous porcelain modeller, Johann Joachim Kandler of the Saxon Royal factory at Meissen. (Rainer Ruckert, Peter Cameron and Philippa Glanville have published new information. See Peter Cameron,"Henry Jernegan, the Kandlers and the Client Who Changed his Mind," Silver Society Journal, Autumn 1996, p. 495, fig. 7, and Philippa Glanville, Silver Torah Scrolls by Kandler: Rococo Elegance in Miniature, National Art Collections Fund Annual Review, 1993, p. 28). Charles Kandler, born Carl Rudolph, had been apprenticed under the Dresden court silversmith, Johann Jacob Irminger, who was also artistic director of the Meissen factory and who supplied many designs for porcelain. The influence of the porcelain designs in Charles Kandler's London silverwork is indisputable; his silver soup tureens, for example, have exact counterparts in Meissen. The present coffee pot, although stylistically much more inventive than the tureens, does betray German characteristics in its pronounced baluster shape, scalloped fluting, robust modelling, and in its arrangement of the decoration into vertical panels. However, the beautifully executed bands of chased overlapping shells, extending even to the spout and handle sockets, appear to be a unique and particularly successful design.