MARK OF JOHN HOULE, LONDON, 1816

The model for these tureens was an 18th century covered punch bowl. One such bowl, by William Cripps, 1752, was offered Sotheby's, New York, 9 October 1985, lot 140, and another, also Cripps, 1752, sold Christie's, New York, 15 April 1997, lot 326. Cripps was part of the circle of goldsmiths around Paul de Lamerie and indeed this model exhibits infant bacchants and lion's masks in the Lamerie style (see Christopher Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, English Silver 1680-1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection, 1996, p. 52). For a Lamerie example with comparable ornament, see a two-handled cup and cover of 1742, in Beth Wees, English, Irish & Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1997, pp. 80-81, no. 28.