PROPERTY OF MRS. PATRICIA M. KLUGE
THE MAITLAND CENTERPIECE: A MAGNIFICENT REGENCY SILVER-GILT CANDELABRUM

MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1814, WITH SIGNATURE OF RUNDELL BRIDGE & RUNDELL

Details
THE MAITLAND CENTERPIECE: A MAGNIFICENT REGENCY SILVER-GILT CANDELABRUM
MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1814, WITH SIGNATURE OF RUNDELL BRIDGE & RUNDELL
The shaped triangular base supporting three seahorses set with a plinth with three sides, decorated alternately with a frieze of Indian elephants, an engraved coat-of-arms within military trophies, and an engraved presentation inscription; all supporting a waterleaf baluster flanked by three stylized dolphins and set with three bifurcated candelarms to support six candlesockets, each with removeable nozzle, all surmounted by a figure of a lady wearing a turban and holding a herald's staff in one hand and a laurel wreath in the other, next to an oval shield and a cornucopia, fully marked, the base stamped, RUNDELL BRIDGE ET RUNDELL AURIFICES ET PRINCIPIS WALLIAE REGENTIS BRITANNIAS
34¼ in. (87 cm.) high; 872 oz. (27,122 gr.)
Provenance
Sir Thomas Maitland (1760-1824), second son of the 7th Earl of Lauderdale, army officer and colonial official. Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1805-1811 and Governor of Malta 1813-1824.

Garrard & Co. Ltd.
Engraved
Presented to Lieutenant General the Right Hon.ble Thomas Maitland, late Governor of Ceylon, by the Civil and Military officers who served under him in that Colony with an Address of which the following is a copy:
Sir
The Arrival of His Excellency Lieut. Gen.l Brownrigg having terminated the Expectation of your resuming the Government of this colony, we cannot resist our desire to offer you this testimony of the sincerest Respect and Attachment.

We have been gratified to learn from the high Authority of your Successor that your public Conduct in this Island has obtained the merited Approbation of your Sovereign. To that Approbation we would wish, could it be done without presumption, to add our feeble Suffrage. But of our personal Feelings it may be permitted us to speak more confidently: Few of us there are who have not had individual Proofs of your paternal Kindness, who have not had occasion to admire that Union of firmness and Forbearance of Integrity and Indulgence, which will ever render dear to us the recollection of Governor Maitland.

We are anxious to record these Sentiments and therefore entreat your Acceptance of the Memorial of our Affection which accompanies this Address.

We have the Honor to be sir, your Obliged and Grateful Servants.

Brought to you by

Jennifer Pitman
Jennifer Pitman

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Lot Essay

Caption:
Sir Thomas Maitland, by John Hoppner, circa 1805
In the Collection of Thirlestane Castle Trust

This monumental centerpiece is a testament to the immense prosperity of Regency England, fueled to a great extent by its Colonies in the Subcontinent. Presented to Thomas Maitland, the second colonial Governor of Ceylon by his officers in that territory, the centerpiece very literally represents their new wealth in its use of over 900 ounces of silver. Iconographically, it symbolizes the exotic beauty of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the location of the Governor's palace by the sea near Colombo, and the beginning of a new era for the Sinhalese under British rule.

Naturally a commission of this stature would be executed by the greatest silversmith of the day, Paul Storr, under the auspices of Royal Goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. Rundell's employed sculptor William Theed, R.A. as chief modeller in their workshops from around 1804 to 1817, and it is safe to say that Theed was responsible for the superb modelling of the central figure as well as the seahorses, dolphins, and frieze of Indian elephants. Under Storr's direction, the various skills of the silversmith -- casting, chasing, engraving, and gilding -- are all of the highest quality, and give this vigorous sculpture a rich and varied surface texture.

Ceylon had suffered under its first governor, Frederick North, whose lax policies created financial disarray, and whose commander of troops, Major-General Weymss, engaged in a disastrous war with the inland territory of Kandy. Thomas Maitland's dual appointment as both Governor and Commanding Officer in 1805 improved the situation dramatically, as he initiated peace with Kandy and used his considerable administrative skills to suppress the power of the British military, control expenditure, eliminate corruption, and support human rights for the Sinhalese, especially justice reform. Maitland did not support missionaries, and instead instated rights for Roman Catholics and Buddhists, causing the Colonial Office to label him a "pagan." Locally, he was known as "King Tom."

Maitland's five-year tenure in Ceylon was marked not only by relative peace and prosperity, but also by his legendary romance with a local girl named Lovina Aponsua. When Maitland built a new Governor's House only six months after his arrival in Ceylon, he named it Mount Lavinia, acknowledged to be in homage to Lovina. Interestingly, Mount Lavinia was built on a high rocky outcropping that juts prominently out of the coastline near Colombo. The lovely turbanned figure on this centerpiece, sitting atop a naturalistic rocky plinth, certainly personifies the Governor's House--if not Maitland's well-known love for Lovina. In 1811, after Maitland's health declined and he was called back to England, he left a large tract of land in Attidiya to Lovina. He never married, and died while serving as first Governor of Malta in 1824.

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