MARK OF ARTHUR MANWARING, LONDON, 1676 AND MARK OF JOHN KING, LONDON, 1674, THE SPICE BOX WITH MAKER'S MARK AM IN MONOGRAM, THE KNIFE UNMARKED AND WITH THE CUTLER'S MARK OF JOHN BELL OR THOMAS JUSTICE, CIRCA 1676

Details

A RARE CHARLES II SILVER TRAVELLING-CANTEEN
MARK OF ARTHUR MANWARING, LONDON, 1676 AND MARK OF JOHN KING, LONDON, 1674, THE SPICE BOX WITH MAKER'S MARK AM IN MONOGRAM, THE KNIFE UNMARKED AND WITH THE CUTLER'S MARK OF JOHN BELL OR THOMAS JUSTICE, CIRCA 1676
Comprising the following, each engraved with a lozenge-of-arms within plumes:
An oval bowl
A circular bowl
Two oval plates with plain broad rim
An hourglass-shaped spice-box with hinged cover and divided interior
A dognose fork
A dognose spoon
and a knife with octagonal tapering handle and steel blade, engraved with an initial 'B' below an earl's coronet
the bowls marked underneath, the plates marked on the rim, the spice-box marked underneath with maker's mark only, the spoon and fork marked on the handle, the knife handle apparently unmarked, the blade with cutlers mark, in contemporary fitted, tooled-leather case
the plates 8½ in. (21.5 cm.) long
gross weight 34 oz. (1,070 gr.)
The arms a for a lady of the Grenville family.

The initial B is almost certainly for John, 1st Earl of Bath (1628-1701) (8)

Provenance

A lady of the Grenville family, possibly Elizabeth Grenville, daughter of Sir Bevil Grenville (1596-1643), who married Sir Peter Prideaux (1626-1705) in 1645. Later ownerships suggest the canteen could have passed to their daughter
Catherine Prideaux, who married the Reverend Charles Harward of Plymtree in 1698/9, and then by descent to their daughter
Catherine Harward, who married Arthur Chichester of Hall (1698-1725) in 1719, and then by descent to their son
Charles Chichester of Hall (1722-1798), who married Amy, daughter of
Robert Incledon, in 1748, and then by descent to their daughter
Jane Chichester (d.1848), who married Admiral R. Incledon Bury of
Colleton and Dennington, and then by descent to their daughter
Penelope Bury (1798-1875), who married The Reverend John (Jack) Russell of Symbridge (d.1883) in 1826
Given by Penelope Russell (1798-1875) on 4 March 1870 to
Hugh, 3rd Earl Fortescue (1818-1905) and then by descent.

Literature

C. J. Jackson, An Illustrated History of English Plate, London, 1911, p. 243-244, illustrated fig. 254.
M. Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 439.

Exhibited

Exeter, Loan Exhibition, July 1913, no. 163
London, Garrard, 'Red Cross Exhibition', 1915, no. 81.
London, Seaford House, Belgrave Square, 'Queen Charlotte's Loan Exhibition of Old Silver English, Irish and Scottish', 1929, no. 315.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The lozenge-of-arms enclosing the arms of the Grenville family suggests the canteen was made of an unmarried lady of the family. The presence of the engraved initial B with an earl's coronet above on the terminal of the knife, when combined with the identification of the arms, suggests the knife once belonged to John, 1st Earl of Bath (1628-1701), son of Sir Bevil Grenville (1596-1643). An examination of the family pedigree of Sir Bevil and the Earl of Bath does not suggest an obvious candidate for the original owner of the canteen. Family tradition has always described the piece as having belonged to the celebrated Royalist officer Sir Bevil Grenville who fell at the Battle of Lansdown. Mrs Russell, a great-great-great granddaughter of Sir Bevil, records the family tradition in her letter of the 4 March 1870 to Lord Fortescue;

'Donnington March th 1870
Dear Lord Fortescue
If before you read this letter you should be induced to examine the contents of the box which accompanies it, you may I fear be led to exclaim "What can Mrs Russell mean by sending me such an extraordinary unsightly piece of antiquity as this"? but I trust from the circumstance of its having been once in the possession of your ancestor, Sir Bevil Grenville you may consider it worth of a place in your cabinet of curiosities! - Through some inter-marriage, and after the the [sic] death of the great General it came together with several relics into the possession of the Hall Chichesters, & the present one fell to the lot of my mother - since it became my property I have often wished, but hardly had the courage to ask you to do me the pleasure of accepting it, & handing it down as an Heirloom to your family. Your dear, & much esteemed mother thought it such a curiosity that on one or two occasions she requested me to send it to Castle Hill for the inspection of some members of the Grenville family - the present curious little canteen is reported to have been the companion of Sir Bevil through the Civil Wars, & and was rescued among other relics when he fell at the Battle of Lansdown...I shall indeed feel more than proud if you will do me the favor [sic] of accepting it.'

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