Britannia Standard Silver Salvers by Paul de Lamerie - Antique George II (1731)

Description

These exceptional antique George II Britannia standard* silver salvers have a square shaped form with incurved corners.

The surface of each salver retains the contemporary engraved coat of arms displaying a saltire charged with a rose of the field, barbed and seeded**.

These heraldic markings are accented with two opposing demi-figures and conjoined via a garland with a central mask motif to the nadir.

Each salver is further ornamented with a paralleling engraved strapwork style border, incorporating scrolling leaf designs and an individual portrait illustration to each corner, all encompassed with a lattice-work pattern.

The raised rounded borders are plain and embellished with an applied moulded decoration to the rim.

The 18th Century silver salvers are each supported by four fine and impressive cast shaped bracket style feet.

NOTE: These salvers were previously advertised as Lot 90 in the 'Catalogue of Highly Important English Silver'; the date of the Sotheby sale was Thursday 16th July, 1970. The items were being sold from the collection of Mrs Fay Plohn, of New York City.

* Britannia Silver - The Britannia silver standard of 958 (95.84% of fine silver), denoted by the icon of the seated Britannia holding an oval shield, was introduced by William III in 1697. This was to indicate the slightly higher standard of silver from sterling silver standard of 925 (92.5% of fine silver).

** This coat of arms pertains to the Neville/Nevill family

Read a brief history about antique sterling silver salvers