MARK OF ROBERT COOPER, LONDON, 1719

ROBERT COOPER

Cooper (FL. 1670-1717), son of a Buckinghamshire yeoman William Cooper, was one of the most prominent English born silversmiths of his time. He was apprenticed to Thomas George in 1664 becoming free in 1670. Arthur Grimwade in his London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, London 1974, p. 472 suggests he worked independently from around 1675 becoming a member of the Livery of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1682. He appears in the accounts of the goldsmith banker Richard Hoare in 1685 for a number of articles for 'Esqr. Pepys', the great diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). He became a prominent member of the Goldsmiths' Company, being appointed a member of the Court in 1693, a Warden in the years 1707, 1711 and 1712 and Prime Warden in 1717.

His recorded works are wide ranging in form and of the highest quality. He worked with Jacob Bodendick in his early years producing elements for larger toilet services, but he was soon creating some of the most important works of the time, including a magnificent wine cistern of 1680 for Baptist May (1628-1697), a prominent Restoration courtier whose sister Isabella, Lady Hervey, was the mother of the 1st Earl of Bristol and grandmother of Winnington's great friend and champion John, Lord Hervey. The cistern was bought from May's executors by John Hervey, later 1st Earl of Bristol and remains at the Hervey seat Ickworth House.

The connection between Hervey family and Cooper continued into the 18th century, which may have influenced Winnington in his decision to employ him. Cooper provided the Hervey family with a substantial oblong salver or plateau in 1712, later engraved with the arms of the 1st Earl of Bristol. Perhaps Cooper's greatest commission was the vast cistern fashioned by him for the 8th Earl, later 1st Duke, of Rutland in 1681, which weighs just under 2,000 ounces. His other notable works include a pair of sideboard dishes and ewers of 1687 made for the M.P. Sir Cecil Bishopp 4th Bt. (1635-1705), of Parham Park, Sussex. The dishes are now in the Ashmolean Museum. A ewer and basin of 1681 by Cooper was given to the Corporation of Newcastle-upon-Tune for the use of the Mayor. Another parliamentary connection is the ewer and basin dating from 1691 and 1693, now in the collection of the National Museum of Wales, originally made for Sir John Trevor of Brynkinalt, co. Denbigh, Master of the Rolls and Speaker of of the House of Commons from 1689 to 1695. It was perhaps Cooper's parliamentary connections that led to him being commissioned to provide a ceremonial mace for the coronation of Queen Mary and King William in 1689, which remains in the Royal Collection (RCIN 31791).

THOMAS WINNINGTON

Winnington was a British politician born in 1696, the son of Salwey Winnington M.P. and Anne, daughter of Thomas Foley and sister of Thomas, Lord Foley. Winnington studied at Westminster School and Christ Church College, Oxford, and entered the Middle Temple in 1714. In 1719, he married Love, the daughter of Sir James Reade Bt., of Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire. The present lot no doubt formed part of the service of plate commissioned for their marriage.

Winnington was first elected to Parliament in 1725, representing the borough of Droitwich. Although he was initially a Tory, he became a supporter of Sir Robert Walpole and was made Lord of the Admiralty in 1730. Winnington was part of a group of like-minded individuals known as the ‘Holland House Group’ centered around John, Lord Hervey (1696-1743), a contemporary of Winnington's as Westminster School, who was Vice Chamberlain of the King's Household and a close friend of Queen Caroline. Hervey was the noted author of his brutally frank Memoirs of the Reign of George II, a diary of his time at court and in government, first published in 1848. They give an extraordinary insight into the events and characters of the day and provide contrast to and corroboration with the work of the other great diarist of the time Horace Walpole. A magnificent conversation piece of the Holland House Group by William Hogarth survives at the Hervey family’s seat Ickworth House. Winnington is to the far right of the group.

Hervey sought to advance Winnington's political career and recommended him for post of Lord of the Treasury in 1735, however, King George II and Queen Caroline disliked Winnington, and Walpole refused the request. Winnington's love of high-living also threatened to jeopardize his political career. In 1731, Hervey described a dinner at which Winnington told a story that Hervey considered unsuitable for someone aspiring to high office. Hervey commented in his diary ‘I very seriously wish one could cure our friend Winington of dealing so much in the fabulous, when he proposes to shine in company...I really wish him well, and he has qualities that might make him a very good figure, but such a weakness, and the ridicule of it, will cover as many beauties as charity can faults.’ Horace Walpole could also be complimentary, writing after Winnington's death that he was a man of 'great good-nature, and a quickness of wit most peculiar to himself.’

Despite Walpole's attempts to secure high office for Winnington, he never achieved the position he desired, but served as Paymaster General of the Forces and was made a Privy Councillor in 1741. In 1746, he declined the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Bath's proposed ministry. Winnington's death on 6th April of that year cut short any further political ambitions. He died after his doctor subjected him to excessive purgings and bleedings, which became a cause célèbre at the time.