Posts Tagged ‘duke of kingston’

Stoneware
British stoneware was probably first produced in London during the second half of the 17th century. Apart from the fine-bodied Wedgwood-type black basaltes and “jasper”-type wares there are three main types pes of British stoneware: grey-bodied, brown-
glazed wares of Rhenish type;
redware in the manner of Chinese Yixing stonewares; and white or off-white salt-glazed wares manufactured in several places including London, Nottingham, Bristol, and Staffordshire.
RHENISH WARE
The earliest datable material, from c.1660, was found at Woolwich, in London. John Dwight (c.1635-1703) was the first documented potter to make brown, salt-glazed Rhenish-style stoneware, and his production of more refined whitewares and red stonewares of the Yixing type began in 1672-3. Production in or near London was centred on Fulham and Mortlake and was generally based on German wares such as those from Cologne (including “bellarmines”), Raeren, and Westerwald. Wares include mugs, jugs, and tankards usually decorated with applied moulded motifs or scratched decoration of hunting or drinking scenes. Brown wares continued to be made throughout the 18th and 19th centuries at Mortlake, Fulham, and Lambeth. This group is mostly decorated with applied reliefs under a two-tone brown wash.
REDWARE AND WHITEWARE
Probably introduced to the Staffordshire area by migrant potters, stoneware became more refined during the 18th century, culminating in the sophisticated Neo-classical wares of Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95). Traditionally it is believed that redware was introduced by the brothers John and David Elers from The Netherlands shortly after their arrival in London c.1686. It was strongly influenced by Chinese Yixing stonewares, which were imitated in the Netherlands. Output consisted almost exclusively of tea and coffeewares and other domestic tablewares. Because the body was so hard it could be decorated by engine-turning on a lathe (after c.1765), and by applying delicate sprigs of flowers or scrolled ornament to the smooth, matt body.
Redware was also made in Staffordshire, and is often erroneously described as “Elers ware”. Some pieces are impressed with pseudo-Chinese seal marks on the base. This provincial type of redware fell out of favour in the latter half of the 18th century. White stoneware was probably developed in the third quarter of the 17th century. This fine ware could be slip-cast into fairly complicated forms, such as teapots in the form of shells, houses, or animals. Many examples are enamelled, and some are transfer-printed. This type of ware was supplanted by Wedgwood’s creamware in the late 1760s.
• TYPES Rhenish type: grey-bodied; redwares: inspired by Chinese Yixing wares; white/grey wares: bodies became very refined during the 18th century
• GLAZE all wares were salt-glazed; surface has a granular “orange peel” texture
• FORMS mostly jugs, cylindrical tankards, teapots; flatwares were made only after c.1700
• DECORATION sprigging; applied panels of hunting or revelry, or sporting scenes, sometimes taken from printed sources such as Hogarth’s A Modern Midnight Conversation; engine-turning on redwares; stamping; from the mid-18th century, enamelling was used on white wares, mostly copying Chinese fanzine-rose wares; transfer-printing is rare
• MAIN CENTRES OF PRODUCTION London: Fulham,
Lambeth, and Mortlake; Staffordshire; Nottingham
Marks
Apart from inscriptions and dates, stonewares are unmarked

Tureens
Tureens were introduced in the early 18th century, reflecting the French fashion for serving stews, soups and sauces. Legend has it that the tureen was named after the 17th-century Vicomte de Turenne, who reputedly ate his soup from his upturned helmet; in fact, the term derives from the French terrine. From the early 18th century, soup usually accompanied boiled meats, fish, and vegetables as part of the first course and was served to the guests by the host or hostess. As such, the tureen became associated with a show of wealth and was often the most richly ornamented and expensive piece in the dinner service. Sauce tureens replaced sauceboats in the second half of the 18th century and were often smaller versions of soup tureens.
SOUP TUREENS
soup tureens were introduced c.1720, but examples dating from before 1750 are very rare today. Generally circular or oval and of heavy-gauge silver, they were set on four cast scroll, hoof, or ball-and-claw feet with cast scroll, ring, or drop handles at the sides and a domed cover with an ornamental finial; most are engraved with a coat of arms. Tureens designed in the 1730s and 1740s by famous French silversmiths such as Juste-Aurele Meissonnier ( 1695-1750) and Thomas Germain are among the most magnificent pieces of Rococo silver pair of tureens (1734-40), designed by Meissonnier for the English Duke of Kingston, is cast in the shape of lame shells on curving scroll bases, with the covers decorated with cast crustacea, game, and vegetables. These pieces were highly influential: vegetable, fish, and game finials are a feature of European tureens from the 1730s to the 1760x. In the I 750s matching stands and ladles became popular, and many tureens were fitted with detachable liners in thin sheet silver with two end handles; these are often sold separately as baskets. Sheffield-plate liners became more common after the 1770x.
In the Neo-classical period architects such as Robert Adam (1728-92) produced designs for tureens to match the dining-room furnishings. Adam’s designs particularly influenced silversmiths, and tureens of this period arc generally oval on a single pedestal foot, with high loop handles, a ring handle, or an urn finial on the cover, and reeled, beaded, and gadrooned edges; decoration includes fluting, swags, palmettos, and bands of Vitruvian scrolls. Soup and sauce tureens were often made as sets from the 1770x, but these are now rare. Tureens were also made in Sheffield plate. The handles and feet of such pieces were not cast but stamped in two halves from thin sheet metal, filled with lead, and soldered together; in many cases a silver panel was inserted for engraving the armorials.
Early 19th-century Regency tureens contrast strongly with the elegant forms of the late 18th century: massive and of heavy-gauge silver, they are richly decorated with lion masks and Classical ornament and have four cast shell, scroll, dolphin, or paw feet. The best pieces have solid cast crests and heraldic devices on the cover. Due to the increasing popularity of the ceramic dinner service, fewer silver tureens were made in the first half of the 19th century. However, a distinctive form of the 1830s and 1840s was the melon-shaped tureen with cast vegetable finials, typical of the Rococo Revival style.
Silver disks for engraved coats of arms or crests, are often easily visible. More ornate and expensive examples have cast-and-applied swag ornament, with fruit- or bud-shaped finials; some especially fine pieces made by the renowned Birmingham manufacturer Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) also have radiating fluting on the covers. In addition, some sauce tureens were engraved with a crest or coat of arms on both the cover and the body; any armorials on the cover should match those on the body. In the late 18th century engraved armorials Such as these were often ten enclosed within wreaths or ribbon cartouches.
In the early 19th century silver sauce tureens were made in fewer numbers (sometimes in Sheffield plate), as ceramic examples (particularly those in creamware) became more popular and widely available. However, some heavier versions in both silver and Sheffield plate, with large, cast, drop-ring handles and elaborate mounts, finials, and decorative borders, standing on four feet, survive from this period, while the Neo-classical boat shape was revived at the end of the century.
SAUCE TUREENS
Sauce tureens became popular from the 1770s. Unlike traditional cold accompaniments to meat, such as mustard and redcurrant sauces, the new French sauces were served hot – meaning that tureens with lids were more practical than open sauceboats for keeping them warm. Sauce tureens were usually made in pairs or sometimes as a set of four – one for each corner of the table – and some had matching ladles. Single tureens are generally less collectable than a pair, and sets of four fetch considerably higher prices. Some examples have matching stands, as with sauceboats, to protect the table from the heat of the tureen’s contents and to hold the ladle when not in use, although other pieces have covers with a notch inside the tureen where the ladle could be placed.
Like soup tureens of the period, sauce tureens from the late 18th century are characteristically oval or boat-shaped, with elegant upswept loop handles and a single pedestal foot. The cover will often be steeply domed in the centre, with the finial at the same height as the top part of the handles. The body of the tureen was raised from a single sheet of silver, while the handles and foot were made separately and soldered onto the body. The majority of early tureens have cast handles, but from about 1790 a number were made from thick silver wire. These delicate handles, which could be very easily damaged by lifting the tureen when full, were sometimes reinforced at the bottom, but it is always important to make sure that the handles have not been pulled away from the body; nor should there be any cracks or tears on the lid where any reinforcing plate that secures the finial has been damaged and/or repaired.
Sauce tureens of this period tended to be sparingly decorated, usually only with reeding, gadrooning, or beading around the rims, covers, and feet; small, urn-shaped finials on the lid were common, but these
were generally replaced with a single reeded or plain ring handle from the early 1790s on onward. On such plain pieces scratches, dents, and, on versions made from Sheffield plate, inserted

Soup tureens• CONDITION seldom good as many pieces suffered from over-use and cleaning; pieces were raised from a single sheet and should therefore not have scams, thinning of metal may indicate removed armorials
• COLLECTING examples were usually made singly but sometimes in pairs; many were produced with stands, liners (often in Sheffield plate), and ladles, but these are typically missing or have been sold separately
Marks
These should appear on both the cover and the base; armorials on the cover should match those on the body
Sauce tureens• CONDITION with the earliest designs (typically featuring a pedestal foot and loop handles) it is particularly important to check for cracking, splitting, and signs of repair where the foot, finial, and handles, join the body
• COLLECTING examples were made from the I 770s, in pairs or sets of four; from c.1790 reeded or plain ring handles were common on the lid instead of the finial
Marks
The cover and body should feature the same mark; a crest on the cover should match that on the body

Candelabra – table candlesticks with branches for extra lights – began to be made from c.1660 and increased in popularity, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. A candelabrum consists of a central shaft with two or more detachable scroll branches supporting candle sockets; sometimes there is also a socket at the top of the shaft. Made in similar styles to candlesticks and by the scone makers, candelabra were likewise generally produced in pairs. Most found today, are in good condition, because they were better made and much more expensive than candlesticks and therefore were not subjected to the same amount of wear or damage.
THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY Silver Candelabra
Although examples are known from the late 17th century, few candelabra dating from before the 1770, survive today. Until the late 18th century most had two branches, but matching branches and stems were not particularly popular or fashionable until c.1750. As on candlesticks, detachable nozzles for the sockets appeared c.1740. To be of value to collectors, a candelabrum should have all its separate parts – the branches, the nozzle, and the stem – in the same style and hearing the same maker’s marks. Before -.1750 branches were often considered awkward and so were discarded and the stem used as a candlestick.
French silversmiths createdd some of the finest Rococo candelabra in the early and mid-18th century. One of the most famous examples is a single three-hranched candelabrum designed in 1734-5 by juste-Aarele Meissonnier (1695-1750), Royal Goldsmith to King Louis XV of France, and executed by Claude DLIVivicr (1688-1747) for the English Duke of Kingston. It has an extraordinary, asymmetrical, spiralling stem with three richly sculpted branches ending in flower-shaped sockets, and a cast finial in the form of a cluster of leaves, which can be removedto hold a fourth candle. Such pieces fully exploit the plastic, sculptural qualities of cast sib, er, and had a particular influence in England, where elaborate Rococo candelabra were made by such leading silversmiths as George Wickes ( 1698-11-61) and Paul de Lamerie (1688-1751) in the 1740s and 1750x. All such pieces are exceptionally rare and valuable today and fetch high prices on the market.
THE LATER 18TH CENTURY Silver Candelabra
In the early 18th century the hour for dining was generally about 3p.m., but lit the latter part of the century it was put back and the main meal of the day was often eaten after dark. For this reason, more light was needed, and so candelabra from the 1770s onward usually have at least three branches. Elegant and light Neo-classical forms, with fluted or plain tapering baluster stems, simple, slender branches, and urn-shaped sockets, all decorated with beading and reeding, were especially popular. Such designs were produced in cast and loaded sheet silver and Sheffield plate; some candelabra have silver stems but Sheffield plate branches, perhaps to reduce the cost. Similarly, candelabra made entirely in Sheffield plate often had a matching set of more expensive silver candlesticks.
THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY Silver Candelabra
Massive, heavy silver-gilt candelabra are characteristic of the Regency period. Made largely to impress, these often form part of elaborate table centrepieces. Magnificent candelabra were made by the leading English goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell (est. 1805) and by Paul Story (1771-1844) for the Prince of NXiale, (later King George IV) and his circle. Such pieces – such as one made by Edward Farrell in I824 – have five or more branches, sometimes with double sockets, and stems lit the form of caryatids or mythological figures. Earlier candelabra were often altered to suit new tastes: a pair of candlesticks ordered by the Earl of Carlisle from the firm Parker & Wakelin (est. -.1758) in 1770 was supplemented with double branches in 1780 and triple branches in 1826.
THE LATER 19TH CENTURY Silver Candelabra
Most candelabra made in the later 19th century are of loaded sheet silver or plate, and many have figures supporting the candle sockets or as decoration on the base. After the introduction of oil lighting, some candelabra were converted to oil lamps. in the second half of the 19th century a huge range of items, including candelabra, was produced using the new method of electroplating. Following the invention of the electric battery in the early 19th century, an English doctor named John Wright experimented with electrolysis to coat the surface of base-metal objects with precious metal. In 1840 the Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co. (est. c.1830), in partnership with Wright, took out the first patent for this new process. Known as “electroplating”, it involved the immersion into a plating bath of a nickel object attached to a positive anode and a block of pure silver attached to a negative anode. When the electric current was switched on, silver particles passed through the solution and were deposited on the nickel object; the same process could be used both for gilding and for replacing worn objects.
The introduction of electroplating led quickly to the decline of the Sheffield-plate industry. The new process was far safer than the old one, but its main advantage was that it enabled objects to be formed entirely by traditional silversmithing methods before being plated, making complex sculptural ornament possible. By comparison,handles and borders made in Sheffield plate had to be silver. Condition Is important stamped out from sheet silver, filled with lead, and applied.
Elkington & Co. and the marm, other electroplate manufacturers established in the 1850s and 1860s produced a huge range of electroplated items, from chargers, ewers, and centrepieces richly decorated with valuable ornament in various historical styles to cutlery, frames, and spoon-warmers. Elkington employed the French sculptor Leonard Morel-l.aclertil ( 1820— ) to design splendid Renaissance-style pieces for display at international exhibitions. The firm also used the process of electrotyping - taking a mould front an object and depositing onto it a thin layer of silver, backed with base metal - to produce facsimile copies of a number of historically important pieces of silverware, in particular a collection of Tudor and Jacobean silver held in the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow.
Since such large quantities of electroplate still exist, it is important to buy pieces in the very best condition. Electroplate can usually be distinguished from Sheffield plate by the harsher colour of the pure silver (the sterling standard was used in Sheffield plate) and the lack of visible series, and joins, which are hidden by the layer of deposited silver.