LONDON'S SILVER TREASURE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21436, 30 March 1935, Page 23

LONDON'S SILVER TREASURE

| CITY COMPANIES' PLATE I SOME FAMOUS PIECES OT7X ovm cobbssfckdekt.) LONDON, February 23. | The ancient guilds or livery comi panics of the City of London are fami- ; liar by name to most people, and are I well known for their share in laying i the "foundation of British commerce, 1 states a correspondent in the "Ob- ; server." I Throughout tb«- many centuries of their romantic history they have been enriched by costly gifts of silver by individual iivcrymcn, much of which has happily survived, despite severe losses of priceless objects to meet (he demands for money of rnonarchs and The needs of the companies themselves. One of the most important, objects of English piate of ".he Middle Ages and of the Renaissance was the salt-cellar. Of tile earliest, surviving form is one I fashioned like an. hour-glass. of which ' baretv a dozen are known, and of i ih<.se' the ironmongers claim to have j two. dated from latH-lii. and i and 1 lie Goldsmi.hs one. dated 1522-23. Later ceremonial salt-cellars arc richly represented. There are the Goldsmiths' four, beginning with Ihe famous Gibbon salt-cellar (15,0-/7) unique in its rock-crystal body and architectural frame, enclosing a silver figure of Neptune: the great Rogers salt-cellar of 1601-02. 22 inches high, remarkable for i.s crystal body: a bellshaped salt-cellar, 1599, the recent gift of an American friend of England: and the celebrated Sevmour salt-cellar of about Ifi;!2. intended originally as a gift to Catherine of Bragair/.a on her marriage to Charles 11.. and quaintly described by Pepys, no mean judge, as one of Ihe "neatest pieces of plate that he had over seen. Hare S'l.H-t'cliars

A suuare-slianeJ snH -collar 115W--70 <.f Hie til most rnriiy belongs to the Vintners. .'iikl is of considerable interest tor its decorative figures, derived from the Gorman designer. Peter I'loftier Another rare Elizabethan piece is the Hammerslev salt-collar 11595-9f5) of Ihe Haberdashers, unusual it! the decoration of pastoral scenes:. A standin/ salt-cellar worthy of notice is ihe Inuholders drum-shaped one (. IGI4-15) with a "steeple" finial. To these may be added a remarkable series of salt-cellars of a simpler form, reel-shaped, square, octagonal, and pentagonal, all fitted with scrolls for supporting dishes or napkins, and ranging in date for fifty years from 1638.

j As would be expee'ed in Companies ; renowned for their hospitality, they ! are rich in drinking cups and tanki ards. almost endless in variety, from I the famous Leigh Ctip (149.9) to the i Mercers' and the Armourers' equally | famous Richmond Cup (c. 1510). I Great standing cups, commonly j called "loving cups." may be seen in 1 plenty; they include the unique cup of ! crystal and silver (1554-55), presented ibv Sir Martin Bowes to the Goldsmiths. who have recovered the historic cup < 1599), which they gave to Sir Hugh Myddelton, himself a goldsmith and a benefactor, not only ol that company, but also of London it- ! self as the originator of the New River Scheme.

The Armourers have two eccentric gourd-shaped cups (1585-36 and 1608-09). of in.erest as revealing the powerful German influence on Elizabethan plate. Specimens of a rare little cup with small ring handles, to be seen in large numbers in Oxford colleges (but not. at Cambridge), belong to the IVlcrcers and Cloth workers, dated 1616-17 and 1657-58 respectively. Caudle cups, or porringers, are represented in abundance.

The "Steeple" Cup

No English cup was as popular in its heyday as the "steeple" cup, socalled from the shape oi its linial, introduced within about five years of Queen Elizabeth's death, and highly popular throughout the reign of James 1., especially between 1004 and 1615. Many are preserved in the Halls of the Companies, notably by the Carpenters, possessors of four, made between IGOU and 1628, the Armourers, and the Cutlers, and an unusually late one (1646-47) of the Vintners. The last-named company has an engaging and very rare little cup of the reign of Charles 11., fashioned in the form of a maiden, like the jungfrouenbecher of the Germans, the object of a charming ceremony upon initiation into the company. At Vintners' Hall, too, is one of those German stoneware: jugs imported in large numbers in the sixteenth century, and richly garnished in silver-gilt by Exeter as well as London goldsmiths. The first of that indispensable vessel, the tankard, belongs to the Armourers, and is exceedingly rare, dating from 1567-68. Two more scarce Elizabethan tankards of n different form are at the Goldsmiths' Hall. Later Charles 11. and other tankards may be seen in profusion with such splendid vessels as "Monteith" bowls. Earliest of these bowls is a pair (1635-86) of the Skinners. Originally named after a fantastical Scot called "Monsieur Monteigh," they were not intended lor punch, but as coolers for glasses to hang from the notched rims into the water "to cool them." Their original purpose was largely abandoned later for use as punch bowls.

Ilcnry VIII.'s Gift Among other notable drinking vessels are the fifteenth century mazer bowls and coconut cup (c. 1526) of the Ironmongers, and the famous cup given by Henry VIII., to the Barber Surgeons, and made in 1523-24 from designs, as is supposed, of lians Holbein the younger (the original maple bowl has been replaced by one of silver). Another Royal gift is the Royal oak cup (1676-77) presented to the same company by Charles 11., and intended for the Order of the Royal Oak. No less precious is Pepys's cup (1677-78), his gift to the Clothworkcrs. There are also five cups in the form of a cock (1605-06). and the slightly later cup fashioned like a peahen, with her chicks, all at Skinners' Hall, and unique in English plate.

Rosewator basins and ewers arc represented by a pair (dating from 155657 and 1574-75), recently bought by the Goldsmiths from a nobleman. The ewer is of the same rare form as one (1502-03) at Winchester College, and another (1567-68) the gift of Bishop John Parkhurst to his native town of Guildford. At Merchant Taylors' Hall there are two Elizabethan basins.

Hardly a company is without some historic relic apart from plate. Spoons include several adorned with a figure of St. Julian, the patron saint of the Innholders, of various dates from 1539.