LONDON, 1614, MAKER’S MARK MB CONJOINED, A BILLET BELOW, IN PLAIN SHIELD, POSSIBLY THAT OF MARK BINGHAM

Details

A JAMES I SILVER-GILT WINE-CUP
LONDON, 1614, MAKER’S MARK MB CONJOINED, A BILLET BELOW, IN PLAIN SHIELD, POSSIBLY THAT OF MARK BINGHAM
Engraved with flowers and arabesques and a crest prick-engraved with the initials 'TD' over 'I', on a tapering stem, the foot with gadroons and foliate decoration, marked to rim and under foot, engraved inventory number '5945', with later detachable liner, mark of William Elliott, London, 1820
7 ¾ in. (19.5 cm.) high
total weight 9 oz. 10 dwt. (296 gr.)

Provenance

Almost certainly Sir Richard Sutton Bt. (1733-1802) and thence by descent to
Sir Richard Sutton; Christie's, London, 11 May 1994, lot 251.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Brought to you by

Giles Forster

gforster@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2146

Lot Essay

The mark, recorded by Ian Pickford, Jackson’s Goldsmiths and Their Marks, Woodbridge, 1989 on page 103, line 8, has been given a possible attribution to Mark Bingham by Dr David Mitchell in his new work Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London Their Marks and Their Lives, Woodbridge, 2017, p. 414 where he suggests his as ‘…. the most likely owner of the mark’. Bingham, originally from Derbyshire, was apprenticed to Thomas Alsopp, becoming free in 1592. He seems to have had an active career as a plateworker, with a number of apprentices, before dying in 1641.

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