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Lot Essay
THE EARL OF WARRINGTON'S DESSERT SALVERS
The Earl's dessert salvers are of the finest quality with engraving described by Lomax and Rothwell, op. cit., p. 81 as being of a standard 'extraordinarily and uniformly high'. They note that the work is all by the same hand with the design of the engraving adapted from the 'GW' cypher from Samuel Sympson's A New Book of Cyphers, more compleat and regular than any yet extant..., first published in 1729. They comment further that no other silver or silver-gilt waiters of this distinctive shape, dating from the early to mid-eighteenth century, have been recorded.
It is probable that the larger salvers or 'waiters' would have been used on the dining-table to hold glasses or for the serving of dessert; dishes including syllabubs, fresh and candied fruit and nuts, whilst the smaller salvers were for the serving of sweet wine and dessert liquors. The form of dining fashionable in society at the time, service à la française, involved numerous dishes being placed on the table together, arranged in symmetrical highly decorative designs. For a grand dinner the first course might consist of a combination of soups, boiled meats, various fish dishes and pies, all served together with the diners either being served by footmen or helping themselves from the many dishes. The second course was similarly served and would have consisted of roast meats and game dishes, savoury suet puddings together with sweet puddings and tarts. After the second course, on the grandest occasions, the table could be relaid with fresh linen and a dessert service, often in silver-gilt as is the case here, would be placed on the table.
DAVID WILLAUME II
Willaume II was born in 1693. He was apprenticed to his father in 1707. The Huguenot silversmith and banker, David Willaume I, had fled persecution in his home town of Metz, he was first recorded in London in 1687. His mother was a Mettayer, another silversmithing family, and her sister was married to the celebrated engraver Simon Gribelin. Willaume I, as one of the leading goldsmiths of the early 18th century, enjoyed the patronage of some of the wealthiest English nobility and gentry, trading from premises in Pall Mall and later St. James's Street.
His son was freed from his apprenticeship in 1723 and entered his first mark in 1728 In spite of his eminence as a goldsmith Willaume I did not supply plate to the Earl of Warrington, who in his early years of collecting favoured other Huguenot silversmiths, predominantly Isaac Liger, and to a lesser extent, Louis Mettayer,
David Willaume II supplied plate to the Earl between 1741 and 1744 producing not only the present salvers but also, a pair of soup tureens and two ewers (one being lot 27 in this sale), The largest work supplied to the Earl was a tea table weighing 202 oz., Lomax and Rothwell, op. cit., p. 92, cat. no. 38.
The Earl's dessert salvers are of the finest quality with engraving described by Lomax and Rothwell, op. cit., p. 81 as being of a standard 'extraordinarily and uniformly high'. They note that the work is all by the same hand with the design of the engraving adapted from the 'GW' cypher from Samuel Sympson's A New Book of Cyphers, more compleat and regular than any yet extant..., first published in 1729. They comment further that no other silver or silver-gilt waiters of this distinctive shape, dating from the early to mid-eighteenth century, have been recorded.
It is probable that the larger salvers or 'waiters' would have been used on the dining-table to hold glasses or for the serving of dessert; dishes including syllabubs, fresh and candied fruit and nuts, whilst the smaller salvers were for the serving of sweet wine and dessert liquors. The form of dining fashionable in society at the time, service à la française, involved numerous dishes being placed on the table together, arranged in symmetrical highly decorative designs. For a grand dinner the first course might consist of a combination of soups, boiled meats, various fish dishes and pies, all served together with the diners either being served by footmen or helping themselves from the many dishes. The second course was similarly served and would have consisted of roast meats and game dishes, savoury suet puddings together with sweet puddings and tarts. After the second course, on the grandest occasions, the table could be relaid with fresh linen and a dessert service, often in silver-gilt as is the case here, would be placed on the table.
DAVID WILLAUME II
Willaume II was born in 1693. He was apprenticed to his father in 1707. The Huguenot silversmith and banker, David Willaume I, had fled persecution in his home town of Metz, he was first recorded in London in 1687. His mother was a Mettayer, another silversmithing family, and her sister was married to the celebrated engraver Simon Gribelin. Willaume I, as one of the leading goldsmiths of the early 18th century, enjoyed the patronage of some of the wealthiest English nobility and gentry, trading from premises in Pall Mall and later St. James's Street.
His son was freed from his apprenticeship in 1723 and entered his first mark in 1728 In spite of his eminence as a goldsmith Willaume I did not supply plate to the Earl of Warrington, who in his early years of collecting favoured other Huguenot silversmiths, predominantly Isaac Liger, and to a lesser extent, Louis Mettayer,
David Willaume II supplied plate to the Earl between 1741 and 1744 producing not only the present salvers but also, a pair of soup tureens and two ewers (one being lot 27 in this sale), The largest work supplied to the Earl was a tea table weighing 202 oz., Lomax and Rothwell, op. cit., p. 92, cat. no. 38.