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Lot Essay
THE DRESSING OR TOILET SERVICE
The fashion for lavish silver or silver-gilt dressing table or toilet services developed during the second half of the 17th century, when the leading aristocratic families of the day wished to emulate the Royal practice of the levée, the Royal semi-public ceremony of dressing, as satirised by William Hogarth in his engraving Marriage a la Mode. The term toilette itself derives from the French toile, a reference to the costly and fine fabric that was attached to the mirror of the service and used to cover the dressing table when not in use.
It is assumed this toilet service was commissioned on the occasion of the celebrated marriage in 1670 of John Cecil, 5th Earl of Exeter to Anne, the widow of Charles, Lord Rich and the daughter of William, 3rd Earl of Devonshire. The bride and groom, both aged twenty-one, were complimented by poet and diplomat Matthew Prior (1664-1721) who wrote of the bride in his poem To The Countess Of Exeter. Playing On The Lute',
'What charms you have, from what high race you sprung,
Have been the pleasing subjects of my song:
Unskill'd and young, yet something still I writ
Of Ca'ndish' beauty, join'd to Cecil's wit.'
THE DESIGN
The design of the service with its costly cast and chased mythological scenes and the applied female masks is French in style, recalling the engraved designs of Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682). The scene of Aeneas carrying his father Anchises accompanied by his son Ancanius is taken from Le Pautre's engraving of the scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses published in 1629, shown here. Similar applied female masks are found on a pair of Charles II silver andirons, unmarked, circa 1670, in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch, published in C. Oman, Caroline Silver, London, 1970, p. 83B. It has been suggested that the service may also have been of French manufacture, however, when the tazza was offered for sale in 1987, spectrographic analysis of the metal proved that the piece was of sterling standard, suggesting that it was most likely fashioned in England, rather than in France or Flanders, where the standard would have been of a higher standard.
THE LOCATION
Entries in the 18th and 19th century plate books, very kindly supplied by Jon Culverhouse, curator at Burghley House, record the service as being 'State Plate' or from the State Rooms in the 19th century. Recent work on the 1738 inventory by Jon Culverhouse suggests that the majority of the service may have been in Lady Exeter's Dressing Room in 1738. The elements listed match the quantities in the present service, with some additions and some omissions. The service is listed in an early 19th century guide to Burghley House, Blore, op. cit., 1815, p. 61, located in Queen Elizabeth's Bed Room, 'The toilette is set out with rich suit of dressing plate, embossed with history.'
The other pieces from the present toilet service recorded are a tazza matching the present example, with a scene of lovers surrounded by putti, which remains in the collection of Burghley House, illustrated in Burghley House, Exhibition of the Burghley Plate, 1984, fig. 16, p. 15; and an elongated octagonal casket, similar to the present example with pincushion, sold at Christie's, London, 26 November 1975, lot 173, which was once one of a pair. The inventories also list a mirror, a pair of small bowls and covers, a pair of small circular brushes, a pair of candlesticks, a pair of small vases and a larger vase.