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Lot Essay
The engraved coats-of-arms are those of George Ludwig of Brunswick (1660-1727), Elector of Hanover from 1708 and subsequently George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1714. The initial C, following his GL (George Ludwig) monogram, refers to his appointment as Kaiser of the Imperial Army of the Upper Rhine in 1707. The electoral cap engraved above his coat-of-arms signifies his ratification as Prince-Elector the following year. The inclusion of the C and the electoral cap indicate that the present pair of sideboard dishes and ewers were commissioned in accordance with, and in recognition of, his recent appointments.
This pair of sideboard dishes and ewers comprise part of the magnificent Hanover Royal plate, which remained at the Herrenhausen Palace until shortly after the Seven Weeks’ War in 1866. The Royal plate, hidden in a vault, survived the sack of the palace by Prussian troops, but was relocated along with the Royal family during the war’s aftermath. As George Frederick, the deposed Hanoverian King, entered exile in Austria (where his descendants, deprived of the throne, were henceforth known as the Dukes of Brunswick), the Royal silver was removed to Penzig, near Vienna, and to the Duke’s villa at Gmuden. On the death in 1923 of George Frederick’s son, Ernest Augustus, a considerable portion of the Hanover silver, both English and German, was purchased by the Viennese dealer Glückselig and appears to have been resold to the London dealers Crichton Brothers. The staggering quantity of plate in the Royal collection was documented in a 1923 inventory performed at Gmund before sales commenced. The inventory includes numerous silver dinner services dating to the eighteenth century, as well as older ancestral plate and extremely rare silver furniture; the total weight of the silver amounted to an astounding 21,000 lbs. The impressive display of Hanover plate is captured in an 1868 photograph of the display created for the wedding of the King and Queen of Hanover. The Zilkha ewers and dishes are visible in the upper-left corner of the image.
In the prosperous years following the allied defeat of the French at Blenheim in 1704, the commissions from the Hanoverian court were so extensive that the Royal household employed several goldsmiths simultaneously. As a result, a remarkable amount of collaboration between masters, even on individual pieces, appears to have taken place. Indeed, Conrad Holling is known to have collaborated with a fellow Hanover court goldsmith, Lewin Dedeke, from 1706 to 1727 (see W. Scheffler, Goldschmiede Niedersachsens, Berlin, 1965, p. 249). It is tempting to suggest, therefore, that the D crowned and DD marks found in association with the Holling’s mark on Hanoverian Royal silver are unrecorded Dedeke marks. The former is found on two flasks and the latter on three further flasks exhibited in Vienna in 1889.
Goldsmith Conrad Holling (d. 1720) was the son of Conrad Holling and Maria Meineking, daughter of the Mayor of Neustädt. In August 1677, he married Anna Dorothea von der Lippe, with whom he had thirteen children. His daughter, Anna Maria, married Swedish sculptor and medalist, Ehrenreich Hannibal (1678-1741), in 1707. Holling is recorded as a goldsmith in Calenbergstrasse, Zelle, in 1689, and was named Court Goldsmith to the Elector in 1706⁄1707, for which he received an annual salary of 40 Reichstaler. Upon George Ludwig’s ascension to the British throne in 1714, Holling was promoted to ‘Goldsmith to the King of Great Britain’. In addition to his work for the Royal courts, Holling is also known to have supplied ecclesiastical works, including tombs at Hanover, Leineschloss and the Church at Celle.
This pair of sideboard dishes and ewers comprise part of the magnificent Hanover Royal plate, which remained at the Herrenhausen Palace until shortly after the Seven Weeks’ War in 1866. The Royal plate, hidden in a vault, survived the sack of the palace by Prussian troops, but was relocated along with the Royal family during the war’s aftermath. As George Frederick, the deposed Hanoverian King, entered exile in Austria (where his descendants, deprived of the throne, were henceforth known as the Dukes of Brunswick), the Royal silver was removed to Penzig, near Vienna, and to the Duke’s villa at Gmuden. On the death in 1923 of George Frederick’s son, Ernest Augustus, a considerable portion of the Hanover silver, both English and German, was purchased by the Viennese dealer Glückselig and appears to have been resold to the London dealers Crichton Brothers. The staggering quantity of plate in the Royal collection was documented in a 1923 inventory performed at Gmund before sales commenced. The inventory includes numerous silver dinner services dating to the eighteenth century, as well as older ancestral plate and extremely rare silver furniture; the total weight of the silver amounted to an astounding 21,000 lbs. The impressive display of Hanover plate is captured in an 1868 photograph of the display created for the wedding of the King and Queen of Hanover. The Zilkha ewers and dishes are visible in the upper-left corner of the image.
In the prosperous years following the allied defeat of the French at Blenheim in 1704, the commissions from the Hanoverian court were so extensive that the Royal household employed several goldsmiths simultaneously. As a result, a remarkable amount of collaboration between masters, even on individual pieces, appears to have taken place. Indeed, Conrad Holling is known to have collaborated with a fellow Hanover court goldsmith, Lewin Dedeke, from 1706 to 1727 (see W. Scheffler, Goldschmiede Niedersachsens, Berlin, 1965, p. 249). It is tempting to suggest, therefore, that the D crowned and DD marks found in association with the Holling’s mark on Hanoverian Royal silver are unrecorded Dedeke marks. The former is found on two flasks and the latter on three further flasks exhibited in Vienna in 1889.
Goldsmith Conrad Holling (d. 1720) was the son of Conrad Holling and Maria Meineking, daughter of the Mayor of Neustädt. In August 1677, he married Anna Dorothea von der Lippe, with whom he had thirteen children. His daughter, Anna Maria, married Swedish sculptor and medalist, Ehrenreich Hannibal (1678-1741), in 1707. Holling is recorded as a goldsmith in Calenbergstrasse, Zelle, in 1689, and was named Court Goldsmith to the Elector in 1706⁄1707, for which he received an annual salary of 40 Reichstaler. Upon George Ludwig’s ascension to the British throne in 1714, Holling was promoted to ‘Goldsmith to the King of Great Britain’. In addition to his work for the Royal courts, Holling is also known to have supplied ecclesiastical works, including tombs at Hanover, Leineschloss and the Church at Celle.