A pair of George II silver salvers
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), Portrait of Philip Yorke, Lord Hardwicke, later 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764), in Chancellor's robes, with the Great Seal beside him.
A pair of George II silver salvers

MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1737

Details
A pair of George II silver salvers
Mark of Paul de Lamerie, London, 1737
Each circular on detachable spreading circular foot with compressed baluster stem, with gadrooned and beaded borders, the rim cast and chased with a border of strapwork, rocaille and scrolling acanthus on a partly matted ground, the underside applied with engraved cut-card work calyx, the field finely engraved with a coat-of-arms, each fully marked under base, the foot with lion passant
16¼in. (41cm.) diam.
169oz. (5,285gr.)
The arms are those of Yorke impaling Cocks, for Philip, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764) and his wife Margaret (d.1761), daughter of Thomas Cocks Esq., whom he married in 1719. (2)
Provenance
Philip, 1st Earl of Hardwicke (1690-1764) and then by descent to
Albert, 6th Earl of Hardwicke (1867-1904)
The Earl of Hardwicke, removed from Wimpole Hall, Cambridge; Christie's London, 4 April 1895, lots 97 and 98
Mrs John S. Phipps, Westbury, Long Island; Sotheby's London, 20 February 1964, lot 100
Donald S. Morrison; Sotheby Parke Bernet New York, 6 June 1980, lot 31
Literature
The Connoisseur, May 1964, p.63
The Ivory Hammer, 1964, vol.II, p.172
J. B. Hawkins, The Al Tajir Collection of Silver and Gold, London, 1983, vol. I, pp.42-43
M. Clayton, The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Woodbridge, 1985, ill. p.318, pl. 57
The Glory of the Goldsmith, Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, London, 1989, no.72, p.102
Paul de Lamerie, at the Sign of the Golden Ball, London, 1990, no.76, p.121
Exhibited
Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Art Museum, English Silver, 1966, no.39
Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Masterpieces of English and European Silver and Gold, January, 1980
New York, The Brooklyn Museum, 1966-1980, (Loan no. L64. 12.1 AB)
London, Christie's, The Glory of the Goldsmith, Magnificent Gold and Silver from the Al-Tajir Collection, 1989, no.72
London, The Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster Lane, EC2, Paul de Lamerie, at the Sign of the Golden Ball, 1990, no.76
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Philip Yorke was the only son of Philip Yorke (d.1721), an attorney of Dover, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Gibbon of Dover. He was born in Dover on 1 December 1690, and was educated at a private school at Bethnal Green, whence he passed directly into the offices of a London solicitor and then to the Middle Temple, where he was admitted on 29 November 1708 and called to the bar on 27 May 1715. He subsequently moved to Lincoln's Inn where he held various posts including treasurer and master of the library.

He made many friends and secured the patronage of Lord Macclesfield, successfully standing as MP first for Lewes and then for Seaford, which he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage. He rose rapidly in the legal profession, and was sworn in as solicitor-general in March 1719 and knighted shortly thereafter; in 1723 he was made solicitor-general, in which office he continued on the accession of George II. In 1732 he was appointed chief justice at a salary of £4,000, double that of his predecessor; he was sworn of the privy council on 1 November of that year and two days later created Baron Hardwicke of Hardwicke in Gloucestershire, where he already had a seat. He entered the House of Lords in January of the following year. He served as Lord Chancellor from 1737 until his resignation in 1756 and was created Earl of Hardwicke and Viscount Royston in 1754.

Regarded by his contemporaries as the quintessence of 'Whiggism', he was the eminence grise of successive administrations, particularly as the confidant and mentor of the young Henry Pelham, Duke of Newcastle. He was considered one of the handsomest men of his day, with a musical voice and eloquent and stately manner of public speaking; he was also a prolific author of legal text and correspondence and many of his speeches were published contemporaneously. His offices, though held to be moderate and just in the main, were not without controversy as he occasionally vacillated in his support for ministers such as Pitt and Bute, and Horace Walpole was his implacable opponent.

He married on 16 May 1719, Margaret, daughter of Charles Cocks of Worcester, with whom he had two daughters and five sons. He amassed a considerable fortune and in 1740 purchased Wimpole Hall from Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford (1689-1741), where he employed Henry Flitcroft to reface the central block of the house and also undertook much internal decoration. He died at his house in Grosvenor Square on 6 March 1764 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Philip.

The term 'salver' in the early to mid 18th century was taken to mean a plateau on a single central foot, a form which had in the past been termed a 'tazza'; as distinct from a waiter which had three or four small feet. In modern usage a waiter has come to mean a small salver, both of which rest on three to four small feet.

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