$14,000
Estimate: $15,000 - $20,000
Auction: December 15, 2015 10:00:00 AM EDT
Cylindrical form chased with Chinoiserie decoration, one side depicting a finely-dressed figure and serpent-form fountain, the other with a servant holding a vase of flowers, centered by a later engraved coat-of-arms for the Huth family, with hinged flat top and scroll-form handle surmounted by openworked dolphin-form thumbpiece.
H: 7 7/8 in. 34.4 oz.Provenance: Purchased at the John Dunn-Gardner (1811-1903) sale at Christie's London, April 1902, for J. Pierpont Morgan.
The Morgan Collection, Christie's New York, October 26, 1982, Lot 106.
Purchased by the present owner from S.J. Shrubsole, New York, NY, in 2010.
From the Estate of William Fitch Hamilton, a collector from Westchester County, NY and Bucks County, PA.
English silver from this period, chased with Chinese-inspired motifs, is rare and can be considered an early expression of the Chinoiserie style. Chinoiserie is an entirely European style with inspiration that is exclusively Chinese. It heavily influenced taste throughout the late 17th century, the 18th century, and beyond, as Europeans began to reinterpret stylistic and decorative motifs that continued to emerge from the exotic and remote Far East. A tankard of similar form and decoration, circa 1685, is illustrated in Dawn Jacobson's Chinoiserie, 1999, (pg. 29). Noted that it is entirely original and its decoration of "true chinoiseries" had "no imported prototypes," that James II tankard predates the tankard at hand by only four years. Thus, both can be seen as early expressions of the Chinoiserie style in English decorative arts.