Silverware toiletries set could clean up!
SILVERWARE that once graced one of the most affluent houses in Yorkshire is expected to attract international interest when it goes under the hammer next week. Dating back as early as the Georgian period, the silver was created for Duncombe Park, the home of the Barons of Feversham, an ultrawealthy dynasty of landowners and politicians.
The star lot is a suite of George IV silver fiddle, thread and shell cutlery comprising 18 table forks, 18 tablespoons, 18 dessert spoons, 19 dessert forks, 18 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). That alone is expected to make £4,000 to £6,000.
Andrew Mcmillan, of York auctioneers Duggleby Stephenson, said: “The Feversham silver isn’t really a ‘collection’ as such, these are the things that they used at their dinner tables, had about the house, took on their travels or just happened to end up with some way or another.”
The George IV suite is just one part of the spectacular treasure trove; indeed.
It is not even the only suite of cutlery. The auction also includes the George III silver gilt fiddle, thread and shell pattern dessert service that the 1st Baron had before he was ennobled (expected to make £1500 to £2,000), another suite created for the 2nd Baron and even more cutlery added by the 3rd Baron, who was elevated to an Earldom.
In addition the Feversham silver includes all the 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.
Those include the amazing travelling toilet service used by the 1st Baron on military service – a vast array of silver mounted jars, containers and manicuring implements, ranging from razors to a tongue scraper.
The Feversham silver is to go under the hammer in a Country House Sale at the Duggleby Stephenson saleroom in York on Friday, May 27.
The auction also includes important collections of bronzes, portrait miniatures, Militaria and Mouseman furniture. The catalogue is available online. Viewing is taking place throughout next week at the York Auction Centre at Murton. Live internet bidding will be available at DS Live and www.thesaleroom.com