A Magnificent Set of Four William IV Cast Dessert Dishes

Maker: 
John Tapley
Dated: 
1836
Dimensions: 
6.5", 16.5cm diameter
Weight: 
65.25 oz

Each of circular form and finely chased with spirally arranged and overlapping leaves. The centres with an 8 petalled flower head and the undersides with similar central flowers surrounded by three cast supports modelled as whelks. The outer sides engraved with the Lowther crest within a belted cartouche inscribed with the Royal Motto and all beneath an earl's coronet.

Price: 
£15,000
Provenance: 

William Lowther, 2nd Earl Lonsdale (1787-1872)

Thence by Descent to The Right Honourable James Hugh William Lowther, 7th Earl Lonsdale (1922-2006)

Sold Christie's, February 20th, 1947, Lot 216 (6 dishes and two cream jugs), bought by R.W. Lloyd.

Sold by his executors, Christies, 27th May, 1959, Lot 67, sold to Tessiers

Subsequently Spink and Son at which point they may have been split up.

Partridge Fine Arts, 2000. (4 Bowls as the current lot)

Mr and Mrs Ronald Kellett (The Oakwood Collection, one cream jug and one bowl)

Christies, 10th June, 2008, lot 46 ( The Oakwood Collection) bought by Alastair Dickenson and Titus Kendall.

Sold Privately by Titus Kendall.

Illustrated

Michael Clayton, The Collectors Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, (2 cream jugs and one dish) incorrectly attributed to Joseph Taylor, p.107, pl. 220

Vanessa Brett, Sotheby's Directory of silver, p.262, no. 1189, dated 1842 and apparently silver-gilt.

John Culme, Nineteenth Century Silver, pp52-3 and illustrated p.144 (dated 1842)

 

Please contact us for further information

These extraordinary dishes are amongst the best pieces of 19th century silver we have handled. The fact that they are cast makes them very special particularly as the weight of each one is so impressive. Their history, in the above provenance, is also well documented and one would suspect that they were a special commission by William Lowther from the relatively obscure John Tapley. It is only fairly recently that the maker, once thought to be Joseph Taylor, has been positively identified as Tapley. Furthermore, it is not too surprising that the quality is high as he was a supplier to Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, the most eminent retailers of silver in the first half of the 19th century. It is also apparent that Tapley made further pieces of this design some 6 years after the Lowther set. The siver-gilt bowl mentioned above and illustrated by Vanessa Brett and also that recorded and illustrated by John Culme, can be included alongside a cream jug in the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery dated one year later, 1843.