LONDON, 1587, MAKER'S MARK CB IN MONOGRAM, PROBABLY FOR BERNARD CHARLES

This exceptional example of a Tudor tankard displays rich decoration and has survived in excellent condition. Philippa Glanville, in Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, London, 1990, p. 259 notes that the tankard was first introduced in the 1540s to the Royal court; it could be found in the circles of the upper gentry by the 1560s. It served as personal drinking vessel for both men and women. Inventories from the time confirm that tankards were listed singly or in twos; even the extensive 1574 royal inventory listed only four tankards. An inventory of Hardwick Hall taken in 1601 only records four out of a total of forty-two drinking vessels. Tudor tankards of tapering body with horizontal ribs or bars are derived from wooden, barrel-shaped, 'water tankard' prototypes. Examples of such wooden tankards, illustrated here, were discovered with the recovery of Henry VIII's flagship, The Mary Rose, lost in a storm in 1545, but raised in the early 1980s. The use of alternating white and gilt pales on this tankard is also evocative of a wooden prototype. The abundance of ornament employed in all-over patterns was another characteristic of English silver of the period, as was marine iconography, exemplified here by the mermaid thumbpiece, Glanville, op. cit., pp. 259-66 and "Tudor Drinking Vessels," Burlington Magazine Supplement, September, 1985, p. 22. Schroder notes a parallel between the gilded panels of strapwork and foliage on the present lot and the ornament found on a belied tankard or 'livery pot' on 1576 in the British Museum. Bernard Charles, the silversmith who created the tankard was a Stranger goldsmith, possibly a Walloon sworn in 1577, whose mark is recorded on the mounts of a stoneware jug dated 1578, another of 1588, a silver mounted coconut cup of 1586 and The Chorley Salt, a salt of single bell form, 1586, formerly in the collection of Victor, 3rd Baron Rothschild.

The history of the tankard is unknown before it was sold by Sir John Willoughby 5th Bt. (1859-1918), pictured here, at Christie's in 1918. Schroder suggests its excellent condition might have been the result of its presentation to a church, the form having become unfashionable. Its shape is unsuited to ecclesiastical use and it may have remained locked away for many years before being sold, perhaps in the 19th century, to a dealer in old silver or an antiquarian. It is probable it was given to Sir John or a predecessor as neither he nor his ancestors appear to have had antiquarian interests. His father served as a Conservative M.P. and Sir John, having been educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, entered the army serving in the Royal Horse Guards in Egypt and then in South Africa during the Boer War, where he distinguished himself during the siege of Ladysmith and the relief of Mafeking. Following its sale at auction the tankard passed through the hands of another soldier, George Kemp, another alumnus of Trinity. He similarly fought in the Boer War and went on to command the Lancashire Fusiliers in the First World War. His political career with the Liberals brought him an knighthood and finally a peerage. The tankard has since passed through three American collections, with both Richard Paine and Arthur Houghton having been major benefactors to museums. Richard Paine was the three times great grandson of Robert Treat Paine (1731-1814), one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, the Paine family having arrived in New England in 1621.