LONDON, 1635, MAKER'S MARK PB BETWEEN CRESCENTS IN SHAPED SHIELD, VERY PROBABLY FOR PETER BETTESWORTH

The Kingston Russell ewer is a rare form. By being buried it survived the destruction of domestic plate that took plate during the Civil War and the subsequent Commonwealth period. This plain form of ewer, with a body of communion cup or beaker form, emerged in the first decades of the 17th century. Originally accompanied by a rosewater dish, the form of this plain ewer is in direct contrast to the richly chased baluster shaped ewers of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean period. A transitional example dated 1610 paired with a dish of 1638, both in the collection of Eton College is cited by Michael Clayton in his Collector's Dictionary of Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Woodbridge, 1971, p. 181, fig. 277. The ewer adopts the plainer silhouette seen in later ewers, but the body is enlivened by scrolled sides to the lip and a double plain rib around the body. The distinctive scroll handle with a compressed ball finial is evident. Timothy Schroder in his catalogue British and Continental Gold and Silver in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2009, vol. II, no. 213. discusses the form in his analysis of the Seymour ewer of 1635 in the Farrer Collection. He records the Sligsby ewer of 1632 and two further of 1635 and 1662 belonging to Trinity College, Cambridge.

The attribution of this mark is based on research by Dr. David Mitchell for the Goldsmiths' Company.