Lot Essay
The maker's mark is recorded in D. Mitchell, Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, their Lives and their Marks, Woodbridge, 2017, p. 490 on several tobacco boxes, snuff-boxes, wine tasters, small porringers, tumbler cups and spoons.
Samuel was the son of Thomas Hawkes of Oxted, Surrey, a yeoman and was apprenticed to John Bracey for seven years from 1657 but in 1658 he switched to John Gray for eight years, becoming free in 1666. Like his master he was a plateworker as well as running a retail trader active in the Goldsmiths' Company. Amongst his apprentices he counted a Thomas Smith in 1691 who never registered a mark.
Samuel was the son of Thomas Hawkes of Oxted, Surrey, a yeoman and was apprenticed to John Bracey for seven years from 1657 but in 1658 he switched to John Gray for eight years, becoming free in 1666. Like his master he was a plateworker as well as running a retail trader active in the Goldsmiths' Company. Amongst his apprentices he counted a Thomas Smith in 1691 who never registered a mark.