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View full screen - View 1 of Lot 94. An Early Rock Crystal Cup With Renaissance Revival Silver-Gilt Base, Early 17th Century and R. & S. Garrard & Co., London, 1838.

An Early Rock Crystal Cup With Renaissance Revival Silver-Gilt Base, Early 17th Century and R. & S. Garrard & Co., London, 1838

Auction Closed

January 30, 06:14 PM GMT

Estimate

6,000 - 9,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

the oval bowl carved at one end with spreading foliage and engraved with birds perched on ribbon-hung swags of fruit, the short rock crystal stem carved with leaves and mounted on a baluster stem applied with three scroll brackets topped by grotesque masks, the base set with a rock crystal panel carved with tendrils in silver-gilt frame chased with classical leaves and shells and applied with two salamanders and three frogs, marked on base rim and stem, the bowl early 17th century, probably German


Height: 6 in., 15 cm

Length of bowl: 4 5/8 in., 12 cm

Garrard’s was one of early 19th century London’s leading manufacturing and retail jewellery and silversmiths businesses, second only to Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. Commercially descended from George Wickes (1698-1761), goldsmith to Frederick, Prince of Wales (1729-1751), the firm’s eclectic stock included antique plate and mounted and unmounted works of art as well as silver and silver gilt inspired by or copied from historical examples. Although far from unique at the time, the contents of their second hand department rivalled that of Rundell’s and the growing number of curiosity dealers, all catering to the expanding call among wealthy customers for quaint, unusual even out-of-style pieces reminiscent of objects in the noble treasure vaults of previous centuries. An outstanding figure in this market was Kensington Lewis (1787-1854) whose extreme, not to say eccentric liking for the flamboyantly historical was brilliantly realised by the working silversmith and chaser, Edward Cornelius Farrell (1774-1850). Together they furnished their most important client, Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827) with an entire buffet of eye-catching works, the greatest of which was the extraordinary 1128oz. silver-gilt Hercules and Hydra candelabrum of 1824/25.1

 

Customers wishing to lend the flavour of an old-fashioned ‘Kunstkammer’ to their collections were naturally drawn to gold and silver cups, vases, &c. set with precious and semi-precious stones and enamels,2 or hardstone or ceramic objects enhanced with gold, silver or silver-gilt mounts. A collector who especially favoured the latter was William Beckford (1760-1844) of Fonthill Abbey. On one occasion he conveyed his delight to a friend upon acquiring in 1819 from the dealer Edward Baldock a magnificent gold and enamel mounted smoky quartz cup (now known as ‘The Fonthill Ewer’),3 which he believed to have been created by Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571). Modern scholarship attributes the carved quartz bowl to the Prague workshop of Ferdinand Eusebio Miseroni (active 1656–84), and the enamelled mounts to an early 19th century workshop.4

 

At Garrard’s, where copies of old silver had been made and sold since the very first years of the 19th century, the department specialising in such works appears to have been superintended by Sebastian Garrard5 (1798-1870) who, with his brothers Robert junior (1793-1881) and James (1795-1870), were partners in the company which from 1835 was known as R. & S. Garrard & Co. This present cup with its Renaissance revival silver-gilt base dates from this period, as does the pair of Garrard silver-gilt mounted agate candlesticks of 1839/40 which were sold by Christie & Manson on behalf of the creditors of the bankrupt 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos at this sale at Stowe in 1848. ‘These candlesticks,’ wrote a contemporary, ‘were very beautiful specimens of workmanship, and generally believed to be antique. They were put in at five guineas, from which sum they ran rapidly up to forty. The biddings then became more select, and were chiefly confined to Sir Anthony Rothschild and one or two silver parties: Sir Anthony at length secured their possession for forty-six and a half guineas. When the hammer fell, the manager of a well-known London house [i.e. Garrard’s], rising from his seat at the table, quietly remarked – “I made them and sold them for less than half the money.” This observation naturally occasioned some excitement in the room; and Mr. Manson, who was selling, administered a rather sharp rebuke to the gentleman alluded to. Having witnessed the occurrence, we are inclined to attribute the remark to a very natural feeling of surprise at the success of the manufacturer’s art in deceiving the connoisseur, and to acquit the party of any blame in the matter.’6 When the sticks reappeared at auction in New York in 2010 they realised $40,000.7

 

Garrard’s continuing interest in acquiring mounted objects for stock or on commission for a customer is demonstrated by their purchase at the 1848 Stowe sale of ‘A beautiful vase formed of a noble block of rock-crystal, of compressed oviform, deeply engraved with arabesques in beautiful old Italian taste; it is mounted with a lip and handles of silver-gilt.’8

 

In fact, as the 19th century wore on, requests for exotic mounted rock crystal, hardstone and other objects became insatiable. Many examples were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, principally by Jean Valentin Morel during his London sojourn, including a ‘Vase in rock crystal, mounted in gold and enamel, with figures and ornaments,’ and a ‘Rock crystal vase, mounted in silver gilt with ornaments and bas-reliefs in gold and enamels,’ both of which were ‘in the mediæval style.’9 Also in 1851 Michael Emanuel (1804-1872), retail goldsmith of Hanover Square, showed a pair of ‘Natural crystal columns mounted as candlesticks, in silver-gilt, with amphibious figures at base.’10These remarkable objects bear the mark as manufacturer of Leopold Henry Radclyffe, London, 1850.11Emanuel’s son, Harry (1830-1898) succeeded his father and continued the firm’s reputation for fine goldsmiths’ work, works of art and jewellery, which he showed at the International Exhibition in London in 1862 and the Paris Exhibition of 1867.12

 

During the second half of the 19th century, the goldsmiths of Vienna – Hermann Ratzersdorfer (1843-1894), Hermann Böhꦍm and others – carried on the tradition, their factories producing an extraordinary number of painted enamel ornaments, many of which incorporate carved and engraved rock crystal and other polished stones.

 

Notes

 

1. Christie’s, London, 23 March 2017,🌸 lot 200 (); a comparative rarity among the Lewis/Farrell work is a silver-gilt mounted agate bowl and cover, London, 1823, sold at Christie’s, London, on 7 July 2023, lot 8 ()

2. Striking examples include the silver-gilt tankard, set with stones and cameos which was supplied by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell to George IV in 1823 (); and the early 18th century silver-gilt beaker, Lorenz Biller II, Augsburg, 1710, with later embellishments attributed to Rundell’s (Sotheby’s, London, 5 July 2022, lot 5 (//www.laitexier.com/en/b𝐆uy/auction/2022/treasures-2/an-early-18th-century-german-silver-gilt-beaker).

3. The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,🎃 New York, Accession Number: 1982.60.138 ()

4. Richard E. Stone, ‘Early-Nineteenth-Century Fakery,’ Metropolitan Museum Journal

Vol. 32 (1997)𝐆, pp. 175-ꦯ206, published by The University of Chicago Press

5. John Culme, ‘Attitudes to Old Plate 1750-1900,’ The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Woodbridge, 1987, vol. I, pp. Xxvii and xxix

6. Henry Rumsey Forster, The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated, London, 1848, Ninth Day’s Sale, Thursday, 24 August 1848, p. 69; John Culme, ‘The Most Shocking Fakes,’ The Silver Society Journal,2, 1991, illus. p. 86

7. Christie’s, New York, 19 October 2010, lot 79 (). To our 21st century eyes, it is odd that the candlesticks should have been mistaken for antique because the mounts are fully hallmarked and a struck with the m𝔉ark of Robert Garrard (the younger) on behaꦺlf of R. & S. Garrard & Co.

8. Henry Rumsey Forster, The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated, L🎶ondon, 1848ಌ, Seventh Day’s Sale, Tuesday, 22 August 1848, p. 53, lot 824, £42

9. Official descriptive and illustrated catalogue / Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, London, 1852, vol. II, class 23, p. 693

10. Official descriptive and illustrated catalogue / Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, London, 1852, vol. II, class 23, p. 693/4; Art-Journal Illustrated Catalogue. The Industry of All Nations, 1851, London, p. 117

11. Christie’s, London, 7 July 2023, lot 1 ()

12. In 1865 Harry Emanuel published his successful book, Diamonds and Precious Stones.