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拍品專文
THE ARMS OF SMITH
The arms of Smith of West Herrington, co. Durham were granted to William Smith (d.1631) of co. Durham as recorded in R. Surtees, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, vol. 1, Sunderland, 1908, pl. facing p. 194. He was appointed Attorney-general to Richard Neile (1562-1640), Bishop of Durham in 1623 and was Seneschal to both Bishop Neile and his successor John Howson (1557-1632). He was also Recorder of Berwick. On his death in 1631 he was buried in Durham Cathedral. He had purchased the estate of West Herrington in 1616 and had later bought more land nearby in 1621, however, indentures dating from the period record that the main house was later sold by his grandson, also called William, to John Lambe in 1671 for £225.
This porringer could have belonged to two members of the family. There is a Robert Smith, 'gentleman of the City of Durham', who recorded in the title deeds of West Herrington in 1677. He was probably the second surviving son of Henry Smith (d.1661), and grandson of William Smith (d.1631) however the pedigree printed in The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, does not record when he died. The other possible owner is Thomas Smith of Morton House, Bournmoor, co. Durham (1656-1720) only son of Henry Smith (d.1661) by his second marriage.
JOHN DUCK
The goldsmith John Duck (b.1653) began his career in 1669 apprenticed to goldsmith Roger Stevens, whose wife Katherine took over the business following his sudden death in 1673. Duck became a freeman in 1677, and married his former master’s daughter Hannah Stevens in 1678. Although he is believed to have died in 1745, no works have been found bearing the mark of a goose, or duck, in a dotted circle later than 1694.
For an extensive discussion regarding the attribution of this mark to John Duck and an investigation into his life, see 'The ‘Goose in a Dotted Circle’; a Mystery of the Seventeenth Century Investigated' by John Culme in the catalogue for The Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection: English 17th Century Chinoiserie Silver, Sotheby’s, 21 May 1992, also revised and republished in The Silver Society Journal, no. 14, 2002, pp. 97-105.
According to the recent publication Dr. David Mitchell in Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, Woodbridge, 2017, pp. 610-611, there are eighteen known occurrences of the mark of John Duck, including the porringer offered here. Of the other examples of Duck's work, engraved with decoration of chinoiserie figures and fantastical birds amongst potted foliage very similar to that on the present lot can be found on a pair of exceptional James II tankards dated 1686. Known as the Brownlow Tankards, they were owned by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Bt. (1659-1697), before passing through the Brownlow and Allnatt families. They were eventually sold twice at Christie’s London, first by the Rt. Hon. The Lord Brownlow in 1963, then John Allnatt Esq in 1968, before being offered along with the present lot in the 1992 sale of the Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection at Sotheby’s New York. They were most recently sold from The Whiteley Trust Silver Collection, Christie’s, London, 13 June 2000, lot 19, when this present porringer was also sold. Further examples of John Duck’s work sold at Christie’s include a beaker, sold London, 1 December 2004, lot 721, a porringer, sold South Kensington, 8 March 2011, lot 68, another beaker, sold Christie’s, London, 27-28 November 2012, lot 761, and a porringer and cover, sold in Julians Park and Six Private Collections, London, 8 June 2021, lot 299.