Unlocking a treasure trove of silverware
COUNTRY HOUSE DELIGHTS TO GO UNDER THE HAMMER
SILVERWARE that once graced one of the most affluent houses in England is expected to attract international interest when it goes under the hammer later this month. Dating back as early as the Georgian period, the silver was created for Duncombe Park, the Yorkshire home of the Barons of Feversham, an ultra-wealthy dynasty of landowners and politicians.
And that’s a point to highlight: Whilst there are some very fine ‘collectables’ in this treasure trove, for the most part these pieces, created by some of the finest English silversmiths of their day, were not ‘collected’ as such - this is the stuff that they used at their dinner tables, had about the house, took on their travels or happened to end up with some way or another.
This last category does by the way include a piece of particular northern Lincolnshire interest - the impressive silver gilt and enamel key created for the 1938 official opening of the Caistor Senior School, now the Caistor Yarborough Academy.
The ceremonial key was ordered from the Lincoln ‘Art Jewellers and Silversmiths’ James Usher & Son but actually made by the well-known Birmingham silversmiths Deakin & Francis.
How it ended up with the Feversham family is not known. (Be delighted to hear if any readers have information.)
The key is expected to make £50£100, which makes it one of the most modestly valued items on offer.
The star of the show is a suite of George IV silver fiddle, thread and shell cutlery comprising eighteen table forks, eighteen tablespoons, eighteen dessert spoons, nineteen dessert forks, eighteen teaspoons, two egg spoons and two salt spoons.
All have the Feversham crest and were probably supplied to Charles Duncombe, 1st Baron Feversham (1764-1841). The lot is expected to make £4,000-£6,000.
That suite superseded other silverware that Charles had before he was ennobled: A George III silver gilt fiddle, thread and shell pattern dessert service comprising fourteen forks, fourteen spoons, fourteen knives with silver gilt blades and a pair of ice spades, in a fitted mahogany box. That is expected to add another £1500-£2000.
You might think that is enough cutlery for any family but the 2nd Baron added more (another £4,000 to £5,000 pounds worth being sold in several lots) and even the 3rd Baron (elevated to an Earldom) felt the need to upgrade, adding amongst other things over 50 table and desert knives that are being sold in three lots that have combined pre-sale estimate of £600-£1,000.
And, of course, we haven’t even considered coffee pots and cream jugs and sauce boats and salts and mustard pots and coasters and salvers and baskets and other essentials to be found in any grand house in the 18th and 19th centuries - let alone some historic portrait miniatures and important collections of bronzes, militaria and Mouseman furniture that are also entered in the auction.
The Country House Sale is to take place on Friday, May 27, at the Duggleby Stephenson Saleroom at the York Auction Centre at Murton.
The catalogue is already available online and there will, of course, be live internet bidding during the auction.