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Lot Essay
WILLIAM BURWASH AND BECKFORD
This pair of waiters is an example of historicist silver unlike any other commissioned by William Beckford, apart from a sideboard dish of 1812 by Samuel Whitford for which Burwash created the central plaque, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum London (M.47-1980). Saracenic inspired, they are elaborately decorated with strapwork combined with Islamic inspired motifs. The design also has parallels with engravings of Renaissance strapwork after the work of George Wechter (1526-1586) as published in Nuremberg in 1579 in his pattern book 30 Stück zum verzachnen für die Goldschmied verfertigt. However, the radiating motifs on the present lot, deeply etched and then enhanced by chasing and engraving give the composition a three-dimensionality and energy not found in Renaissance silver. Furthermore the choice of ornament is also notably idiosyncratic including not only heraldic motifs, such as the Hamilton cinquefoil in its centre, but also Chinese forms such as the short scrolling feet. In the 2002 Beckford exhibition catalogue it was suggested these waiter could have been intended as decanter stands owing to their sturdy construction.
William Burwash had established himself as a specialist maker of high quality salvers and dishes before he worked for Beckford. His first mark was entered in partnership with Richard Sibley in 1805. He later entered his own mark in 1812. His first known surviving work created for Beckford's Fonthill dates to 1812, the plaque for the dish cited above. Snodin, op. cit., 1980 records seven works by Burwash in Beckford’s collection including a pair of wall sconces, now displayed at Brodick Castle,
THE HERALDRY
The first crest, an heron's head erased holding a fish in its beak and gorged with a collar of flory counterflory, represents the ancestral crest of Beckford, inherited from his father Alderman William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. The second is a crest of Augmentation, assigned under the authority of the Earl Marshall, dated 20 March 1810. Mr Beckford's representation of a co-heir of the Abercorn branch of the house of Hamilton is commemorated by the oak tree traversed by a frame saw inscribed with the word 'Through'. An allusion to Beckford's descent from the first Lord Latimer through the Mervyn family, Lords of Fonthill-Gifford, marked by the Latimer shield, 'gules a cross flory or pendent from the tree'. Beckford also adopted the Mervyn motto 'De Dieu Tout' in place of 'Libertas Et Natalie Solum' used by his father.
This pair of waiters is an example of historicist silver unlike any other commissioned by William Beckford, apart from a sideboard dish of 1812 by Samuel Whitford for which Burwash created the central plaque, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum London (M.47-1980). Saracenic inspired, they are elaborately decorated with strapwork combined with Islamic inspired motifs. The design also has parallels with engravings of Renaissance strapwork after the work of George Wechter (1526-1586) as published in Nuremberg in 1579 in his pattern book 30 Stück zum verzachnen für die Goldschmied verfertigt. However, the radiating motifs on the present lot, deeply etched and then enhanced by chasing and engraving give the composition a three-dimensionality and energy not found in Renaissance silver. Furthermore the choice of ornament is also notably idiosyncratic including not only heraldic motifs, such as the Hamilton cinquefoil in its centre, but also Chinese forms such as the short scrolling feet. In the 2002 Beckford exhibition catalogue it was suggested these waiter could have been intended as decanter stands owing to their sturdy construction.
William Burwash had established himself as a specialist maker of high quality salvers and dishes before he worked for Beckford. His first mark was entered in partnership with Richard Sibley in 1805. He later entered his own mark in 1812. His first known surviving work created for Beckford's Fonthill dates to 1812, the plaque for the dish cited above. Snodin, op. cit., 1980 records seven works by Burwash in Beckford’s collection including a pair of wall sconces, now displayed at Brodick Castle,
THE HERALDRY
The first crest, an heron's head erased holding a fish in its beak and gorged with a collar of flory counterflory, represents the ancestral crest of Beckford, inherited from his father Alderman William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. The second is a crest of Augmentation, assigned under the authority of the Earl Marshall, dated 20 March 1810. Mr Beckford's representation of a co-heir of the Abercorn branch of the house of Hamilton is commemorated by the oak tree traversed by a frame saw inscribed with the word 'Through'. An allusion to Beckford's descent from the first Lord Latimer through the Mervyn family, Lords of Fonthill-Gifford, marked by the Latimer shield, 'gules a cross flory or pendent from the tree'. Beckford also adopted the Mervyn motto 'De Dieu Tout' in place of 'Libertas Et Natalie Solum' used by his father.