M. FORD CREECH ANTIQUES

QUEEN ANNE BRITANNIA SILVER SUGAR CASTER

Benjamin Pyne, London, 1708-9

Benjamin Pyne mark on caster lid and body : Grimwade #2247, a crown over a flower over PY; other marks rubbed; date legible

Britannia mark rubbed but visible; impression on rim is a dent

Of heavy gauge Britannia silver in the early baluster pear form with lower girdle raised on a pedestal foot, the pierced lid

marked on the exterior in the piercing and surmounted by a acorn finial; verso engraved with initials P over I M; the body

marks on the side; bearing the crest of a heraldic tiger's head erased engraved over faint remains of original arms (almost

completely obliterated through age and polishing, but not removed)

Mark : Grimwade #2247, a crown over a flower over PY, registered 1697

Condition: Excellent; makers mark on lid and body clear; Leopard’s head illegible; Britannia and date letter

rubbed but legible; one dent to lid banding; ½” wear to one area of body reeding; no repairs or splits found

10.9 oz.; 8 ” High

SOLD

#5593

BENJAMIN PYNE, c1653 (Devon) -1732 (London)

Benjamin Pyne was an important late 17th and early 18th century Huguenot silversmith. He was apprenticed in

1667 to George Bower ( fl 1660-89), who was appointed Embosser in Ordinary to Charles II in 1661. Pyne was

made a freeman of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1676 and was probably working independently by at least 1680,

when the first mark attributed to him, a crowned P, appears. Several pieces by him survive from the mid-1680s,

including one of the two Croft Cups (1685; London, BM). These early works are in a robust and well-proportioned

Baroque style. Much of his work demonstrates a command of Huguenot techniques combined with an adherence

to a native English style. It is clear from the quantity of his surviving work that he ran a large workshop, and it

is likely that he employed Huguenot journeymen as plateworkers.

Among his most outstanding works is a set of four silver-gilt dessert dishes (1698; two each in London, V&A;

Los Angeles, CA, Gilbert priv. col.); these are chased with ornament derived from prints after Stephano della Bella

and were possibly engraved by Simon Gribelin II. Other important surviving works include a pair of ewers and a

dish (1699, see Schroder, p. 147) made for Anthony Grey, 11th Earl of Kent, and a 32-piece silver-gilt toilet service

(1708; London, Al Tajir priv. col., see Schroder, p. 147) made for Thomas Howard (d 1732), 8th Duke of Norfolk.

A significant part of his output consisted of church plate and municipal regalia.

By the end of the 17th century, Pyne and Anthony Nelme were the leading English goldsmiths in London. In 1714

he was appointed Subordinate Goldsmith to George I for his coronation, and in 1725 he became Prime Warden of

the Goldsmiths' Company. His long and distinguished career, curiously, ended in poverty: he was obliged in 1727

to apply for the position of Beadle of the Goldsmiths' Company.

(Oxford University Press)

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