Lot 271: A FINE GEORGE III SILVER TEA CADDY

Maker's mark of John Parker & Edward Wakelin, London, 1765 Cube form, engraved with Chinese characters and foliate borders, the cover with tea-plant finial with chain and original fretwork key, engraved with a lozenge of arms within foliage, marked under base and cover, also with scratchweight 14:2 33/4in. (9.5cm.) square; 13oz. 10dwt. (428gr.) PROVENANCE The late Mrs. B. N. Stuart, sold Christie's, London, December 14, 1962, lot 36 Walter Willson, Chicago, 1962 NOTES The arms are those of Castle impaling Frome in a lozenge, as borne by Catherine, widow of William Castle Esq., Stationer to His Majesty the King (d. 1761). Born Catherine Frome of Salisbury, she died in London on June 8, 1793. This caddy is an early example of the amusing tea-crate caddy design popular in the late 1760s and early 1770s. Realistically modeled after Chinese wood tea crates, most caddies of this design--whether cube-form or drum-form--bear the mark of Aaron Lestourgeon. The workman's ledgers of Parker & Wakelin document that Lestourgeon supplied Parker & Wakelin with this type of caddy. In 1768, Parker & Wakelin ordered "two square tea tubs" for their client, banker Richard Cox. The records show that the assembly of the "tubs" was made by outworker silversmiths Ansill & Gilbert, but that Lestourgeon fitted them with locks and decorated the caddies, charging Parker & Wakelin for "graving of Characters." Since Lestourgeon first registered his own mark in 1767, it is possible that he was working directly for Parker & Wakelin in his early years. (See Helen Clifford, "The Organization of an Eighteenth century Goldsmith's Business," The International Silver & Jewellery Fair, February 1990, for the details of Richard Cox's order).