Circular on four scrolling shell, leaf, and lion's mask feet, the cast and pierced border with four rocaille-framed cartouches chased with chinoiserie scenes, alternating with four masks representing the seasons, fruiting grape vines, and leopards, lizards or salamanders, and foliage, the field robustly chased with the arms of Lowther with viscount's coronet and thusly mantled, marked on reverse, on rim, and with additional inventory scratch mark 1476.

Provenance: William, 1st Viscount Lonsdale (1757-1844) thence by descent to
Lancelot, 6th Earl of Lonsdale (1867-1953)
The Earl of Lonsdale, sold Christie's, London, February 19, 1947, lot 122 (£180 to Platt)
Property of the late Mrs. Julie Schoenfrucht, sold Christie's, New York, July 10, 2002, Lot 22
Property of a New York silver collector.

William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale KG (English, 1757-1844) was a British nobleman, landowner, and Tory politician. In 1802, on the death of his third cousin once removed, Lowther inherited by special remainder the titles of Viscount Lowther and Baron Lowther. In 1807, having already inherited the estates of his distant relative, Lowther himself was granted the title of 1st Earl of Lonsdale in a second creation of the peerage, and appointed a Knight of the Garter.

The Earl, a coal magnate, spent great sums on the Lowther estates and erected a new Lowther Castle in Cumbria. Lowther Castle was greatly rebuilt and castellated by Robert Smirke (English, 1780-1867) for Lonsdale between 1806-1814. Lonsdale was known for his interest in the arts, and served as a patron to a number of artists and authors, including William Wordsworth.

It has been recorded that the first Earl received the offered lot as part of his 1802 inheritance, but the arms are later added and are those of his descendant, St. George Henry, 4th Earl of Lonsdale (1855-1888) who married Lady Constance Gladys, daughter of Sidney, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea, and sister of George Robert Charles, 13th Earl of Pembroke in 1878.

At the time of his sudden and early death at the age of 26, the 4th Earl's wife was traveling in the South of France. It is noted in Lord Rosebery's diary that St. George had taken ill, not at his usual London address, but rather "in the house he took to give actresses supper in." To maintain the appearance of a respectable demise, his body was quietly moved, positioned sitting up, in a cab from 30 Bryanston Street to Carlton House Terrace.

The family's fortune was later depleted during the Edwardian era as a result of the extravagances of the 5th Earl of Lonsdale. The castle was closed in 1937, and the 6th Earl of Lonsdale was forced to auction the contents a decade later in 1947, in what would come to be regarded as one of the largest country house sales of all time. It was at this time this salver first appeared on the market.

Heming

Since its first offering at auction in 1947, this salver has been attributed to master silversmith Thomas Heming due to the style, quality, and the slightly indistinct marks. Heming worked in London beginning in 1745, received appointment as Principal Goldsmith to the King in 1760, and died between 1795 and 1801. His pieces are often noted for their "French delicacy of taste inherited from his master Archambo." His masterpiece is likely the Speaker's wine cistern, dated 1770, at Belton House, Lincolnshire. A related salver by Heming with similar grapevine decoration is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, M.88-1935.