Hi all, I have a George II sterling silver tripod salt cellar, London 1744 (date letter i), 92g, full gilded interior, Rococo chased decoration. The crest on the shield cartouche looks like a hound (possibly talbot or greyhound). Can anyone recognize the family?
The maker’s mark is two letters inside a curved / arc-shaped cartouche. The first letter appears to be ‘M’, the second is worn and unreadable. I checked databases but found no match for a curved outer frame with an ‘M’ in London 1744. The image is not very clear, hope it’s still helpful.Any clue which silversmith this could be? Thanks a lot!
I just noticed the PDF and the link you sent earlier – I missed them before. Thank you very much for sharing them! This really helps me a lot. You must be a very professional researcher.
Edward Wood pioneered the creation of cauldron salts replacing the trencher salts of an earlier era
Apprenticed in July 1715 to Gundry Roode. Free in August 1722 and entered first mark at “Puddle Dock at the end of Great Carter Lane”. By 1735, he had moved to Carey Lane until his death in 1752. It is interesting to find Wood in the line of specialist salt cellar makers, since his master, Roode, appears to have produced little else. Wood, in his turn, seems only to have made cauldron salt cellars and, in 1728, became the master of the young David Hennell. David Hennell became one of the largest makers of salt cellars in 18th century London whose name continues in commercial use to current date.
You will note three things, first the salt you have is a single. Typically these were sold in sets of up to a dozen as each salt stood by each diner’s plate and was for his exclusive dipping use, replacing trenchers which in turn replaced the master salts of Tudor and earlier times.
Secondly you have the darker gilding of the electroplate era beginning about 1840 so, while dated a hundred years earlier have been gilded or re-guilded much later.
Ideally collectors are after the lemony gilding of the mercury lost gilt system which, because of the poisonous mercury vapours, accounting for the rapid turnover of silver and gold smiths.
And thirdly that not only have the Victorians gilded the interior, which probably does little to devalue it and may actually enhance, but they have also repoussed it adding extraneous later patterning to the bowl.
Luckily the high Victorian taste for decorating old silver continues to attract buyers today.
Thank you so much for your detailed interpretation, which has given me a deeper understanding of this silver piece. I have one more question: will such later chased carvings raise or lower its value? Will it be priced lower compared to original, unmodified plain silver pieces?
For collectors and purists, they have little or no further interest. For hobbyists who simply seek something decorative, it may actually make it more rather than less appealing.
Generally these salts sell better in pairs so look out for a near copy.
One might suppose the rose in greyhound’s mouth was in commemoration of his two times command of HMS Rose. In fact the arms were granted the family in the restoration of Charles II for services rendered in the time of Cromwell.
Usually roses determine by their colour if the family traces back to the Yorkist kings defeated at Bosworth or red rose of the Lancastrian families. Here we have both and indication of Tudor rose probably tracing loyalties back through the Stuarts and Mary Queen of Scots.
Thank you again for your incredible research – I really appreciate the time you put into tracing Captain Weller and his family crest.
However, I think this is partly my fault because I didn’t provide a clear photo of the crest. I’ve now attached a sharper image. Looking at the actual piece, the greyhound does not have a rose in its mouth. What might look like a rose in the earlier photo is actually just a scratch near the mouth area.
So the crest on my salt seems to be a greyhound‘s head without the rose. Could this be a variation of the Weller crest? Or does it belong to a different family?
If it belongs to a different family there are 601 with greyhounds in their crests and 189 employing couped or erased heads of greyhounds. The “slipt” or stripped stalks your item’s silversmith gave the greyhound could be whiskers but very unlikely and there are no other heraldic greyhounds chowing down on anything heraldic except in the coats of arm of the Weller’s or Weller cadet branches of the family of which there are two. So I presumed the silversmith’s engraver had simply run out of room or the clock or both. I also thought “Steady” was exactly the sort of motto a Royal Naval Capt of a Ship under sail might have as a personal or family motto, while conceding the motto predates him.
But I am reliant upon secondary resources in print. For a more thorough search you might wish to consult the Herald at the Roll of Arms. They used to do searches for me for a small fee and I suppose they still might.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful and honest reply. I really appreciate the time and care you’ve put into helping me. The numbers you gave (601 / 189) are eye-opening, and I admire how willing you are to reconsider your own conclusion based on new evidence. That’s a real scholar‘s attitude. I’m a student, so I probably won’t commission the heraldic search right now, but your guidance has already taught me a great deal about heraldry and how to think about these things. Thank you again for being so generous with your knowledge.
Kind of you to say so. Heraldry is a life long pursuit. If you decide to work in the area there are some excellent texts to get you started.
All it really comes down to is advertising for rich people who have got land and need to persuade other folks they deserve it. The success rate for doing this is no higher than Madison Avenue’s attempts to convince us all this things that clearly aren’t are actually good for us.
In silver collection it is a useful way of double checking your own work.
Used to be nobody left their marks on second hand silver as it would demonstrate to all and sundry they were bailing and selling he family silver.
Now Americans especially will pay premium for other people’s family doodles on their spoons and forks. So they are left on.
I have one of those large tea trays, It is so heavy the guy carrying it in for tea needs to keep working out to keep his job. Anyway at some point it must have belonged to someone really unsure about their social position in the world and the entire tray is covered with a huge etched coat of alms.
Coats of arms were first created by European nobility and knights in the early 12th century.They developed as a practical way to identify combatants in full armour, with one of the earliest documented instances being in 1128 when Henry I of England presented a shield with gold lions to his son-in-law, Geoffrey of Anjou.
Exactly how bad an idea with was is fully apparent when we discover this young man with this shield’s descendants started both the hundred years war and the war of the roses.
