M. FORD CREECH ANTIQUES & FINE ARTS

 

 

FINE PAIR OF GEORGE III / IV OLD SHEFFIELD PLATE WINE COOLERS
Matthew Boulton, Birmingham, England, First Quarter 19th Century

 

 

Each of twin handled campana form and having collared liners,
the bodies engraved with the arms of The Honourable Thomas Villiers :

 

Arms: Quarterly 1st and 4th Argent on a cross gules five escallops or (for Villiers)
2nd and 3rd Azure a chevron between three lozenges or a canton (……?......)
for difference (for Hyde)

 

The arms are resting upon the Prussian eagle denotes an augmentation for the

Barony of the Kingdom of Prussia granted by the King of Prussia to Thomas Villiers.

 


 

The arms below an upper rim with gadrooning punctuated by anthemion,
the lower sections cast and chased as a horizontal band of anthemion above upright acanthus leaves;

raised on a pedestal foot headed by an annulated gadrooned knop and resting on a spreading foot,

the rim with further gadrooning punctuated by anthemion,

the squared u-shaped foliate handles arising from berried leaves;

each marked below with the Boulton twin suns (stars) with faces; marked 3 and 4

 

Notes :

Matthew Boulton is regarded as the leading manufacturer of Old Sheffield Plate Silver.
He worked in Birmingham from 1762 (with John Fothergill to 1782),
and estabishing the Birminghan Assay Office in 1773.
Although Boulton died in 1809, his mark continued in use for the first third of the 19th century.

* For additional information about Matthew Boulton & the Soho Manufactory, please click here.

 

Wine coolers exist from the early 18th century.

However most date from the late 18th and the 19th centuries.
The characteristics of this pair of coolers exhibit the strength yet still some classical restraint
associated with the Regency and George IV reign. The dating is likely between 1815-20.
However, Boulton is also known for many such neoclassical designs during the late 18th century.

 

Condition: Excellent;
each with minor dent to the foot; several minor high points of bleed around the urn base

 

10.25" High

 

SOLD

 

#7230

 

Please Inquire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Showing the Boulton Double Sun with Faces Marks to Each 

 

 

  

  Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Charles Bestland, after Thomas Hudson
Stipple Engraving, Published 1 June 1803 / National Portrait Gallery, London

 

The Arms of The Honourable Thomas Villiers

 

The armorial bearings as engraved upon this Pair of George IV Old Sheffield Plate Wine Coolers

by Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham dating to the first quarter of the 19th Century
are those of The Honourable Thomas Villiers.
They may be blazoned as follows :

 

Arms : Quarterly 1st and 4th Argent on a cross gules five escallops or (for Villiers)
2nd and 3rd Azure a chevron between three lozenges or a canton (……?......)
for difference (for Hyde)
The arms are resting upon the Prussian eagle* denotes an augmentation for

the Barony of the Kingdom of Prussia granted by the King of Prussia to Thomas Villiers.

 

* Germanic or Teutonic eagles often have a decoration on their wing which

terminates in a 'clover head' type design which unfortunately has been engraved he
re as a sword or dagger on each wing. The English engraver who undertook this work
was undoubtedly unaware of this particularly Germanic or Teutonic heraldic peculiarity.

 

Given the presumed date of manufacture of these wine coolers

and from that premise they were probably additions to an existing suite of silver

that bore the arms that were in use between 1748 and 1756.

The Honourable Thomas Villiers (born 1709 died 11th December 1786) was the second son of William Villiers,

the 2nd Earl of Jersey and his wife Judith Herne, the daughter and heiress of Frederick Herne.

 
After his education at both Eton College and Queens' College, Cambridge,
he became a diplomat serving as the British envoy to both the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

and the Electorate of Saxony between 1740 to 1747.
During this time, he also served in this capacity in Vienna at
the Court of Maria Theresa of Austria between 1742 to 1743.
His last diplomatic post was to Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia
as an envoy to the Court of King Frederick II of Prussia between 1746 to 1748.

At the end of this appointment King Frederick created
Thomas, a Baron of the Kingdom of Prussia.
 
 

He also sat as a Whig in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament
for Tamworth between 1747 to 1756
.

 

From 1748 to 1756, Thomas served as a Lord Commissioner of Admiralty.

 
On the 3rd June 1756, he was created Baron Hyde, of Hinton in the County of Wiltshire
within the Peerage of Great Britain; this being a revived peerage once held by the Hyde
forebears of Thomas's wife, Elizabeth Capell.

 
He also later served as joint Postmaster General twice with Lords Trevor
(1763 to 1765) and Carteret (1786), as well as serving as the

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster twice (1771 to 1782, and 1783 to 1786).
On the 14th June 1776, he was advanced within the Peerage of Great Britain as the Earl of Clarendon.

This title was another revived title of the Hyde family.

 

Thomas married Charlotte Capell, daughter of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex and
his wife, Jane Hyde, the daughter of Henry Hyde, 4th Earl of Clarendon (of the 1661
creation) and Jane Leveson-Gower (pronounced as 'Looson Gore') on the 30th March 1752.
They had four children.

 

The significance of the dates 1748 to 1756, mentioned in the second paragraph above,
is that Thomas, a Baron of the Kingdom of Prussia, although a younger son of the
Earl of Jersey, he would have ranked as an Esquire in the United Kingdom.
The arms as engraved upon this pair of wine coolers show no incidents of a member of the
peerage, notably the use of a coronet of rank or supporters being a privilege of the peerage.

The bestowal of noble title by a foreign sovereign upon a subject of the British Crown had

no precedence or place in that Crown's realm, although such a title it could be used by courtesy.

Between the year 1756 to 1776, he would have borne
the heraldic achievement as Baron Hyde with supporters and ensigning his arms with
a British baron's coronet. After 1756 until his death in 1786, he would have replaced
this coronet with that of an earl's coronet.

 

(Villiers is properly pronunces "villas").

 


 

Heraldry Courtesy of John Tunesi of Liongam

Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

 

 

 

'Viscount Weymouth's Hunt: Mr Jackson, the Hon. Henry Villiers and the Hon. Thomas Villiers, with Hunters and Hounds'
John Wootton (c.1682–1764) / Tate, London

 

 


 

 

* 'Matthew Boulton' (1792), by Carl Frederik von Breda (detail)

 

* For additional information about Matthew Boulton & the Soho Manufactory, please click here.

 

 

 
 

Showing the liners and collars

 

 

Detail of Boulton Double Sun (Star) with Faces Marks

 


 

 

 

 

  

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We welcome and encourage all inquiries regarding our stock.  We will make every attempt to answer any questions you might have.

 

For information, call (901) 761-1163 or (901) 827-4668, or

Email : mfcreech@bellsouth.net  or  mfordcreech@gmail.com
 

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M. Ford Creech Antiques & Fine Arts / 581 South Perkins Road /  Memphis, TN 38117 / USA /  Wed.-Sat. 11-6, or by appointment

 


 

 

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Fine Pair George III/IV Matthew Boulton Armorial Wine Coolers, Old Sheffield Plate, early 19c