Description

A fantastic quality antique silver chamberstick with the excellent styling you’d expect from the world famous English silversmith Paul Storr.  Plain classic Georgian style with broad gadroon borders, detachable nozzle, and attractive shell thumbpiece. Heavy gauge silver. Hand engraved to the front is an expansive armorial with motto for the Earl of Gosford.

Total weight 497 grams, 15.9 troy ounces.
Height 10.2cm. Diameter 15.5 cm.
London 1810.
Maker Paul Storr.
Sterling silver.

Marks. All 3 pieces – chamberstick, nozzle and candle snuffer, are stamped with matching English silver hallmarks for London 1810 and maker’s mark for Paul Storr. Stamped underneath with the manufacturer’s number 817.

Arms. The pan is engraved with the full coat of arms for the Earl of Gosford of Gosford Castle, County Armagh in Northern Ireland. The nozzle and snuffer both have the baronet’s insignia. Archibald Acheson, 3rd Earl of Gosford KP (20 August 1806 – 15 June 1864), styled Viscount Acheson between 1807 and 1849, was a British peer and Member of Parliament. The motto “Fax Mentis Honesta Gloria” translates as ‘Glory is the torch that leads on the honourable mind’.

Literature – Chambersticks first made an appearance in the 17th century and early examples are now very hard to find. Originally they were made in sets as a household would need many chambersticks. They were used for lighting the way to bed and because of the movement created when they were carried around they needed a large drip pan to catch the wax. The earliest examples have straight handles (first flat, then tubular) which were superseded in the first part of the 18th century by a ring handle. Gradually the design evolved and from the mid 18th century onwards they usually had a matching conical snuffer although from from the late 17th century onwards some were made with an aperture at the base of the stem to take a pair of scissor snuffers.

This attractive silver go to bed is in very good condition. All pieces are matching. Sharp engraving. Good colour. Shows moderate signs of wear commensurate with age.

Maker: Paul Storr

Paul Storr (28 October 1770 – 18 March 1844 ), was one of the most talented silversmiths of the late Georgian period. Today his legacy of exceptionally well crafted silver can be found worldwide in museums and private collections. Son of Thomas Storr, a silver chaser, apprenticed 1785 to Andrew Fogelberg. First mark, as plateworker, in partnership with William Frisbee 1792. Second mark alone 1793. 3rd mark 1793. 4th mark 1794. 5th mark 1799. Subsequent 6th - 12th marks entered 1807-1834. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, established as one of London’s top silversmiths, he was producing commissions for Royalty. In 1801 he married Elizabeth Susanna Beyer with whom he was to have ten children. In 1807 Paul Storr entered into a working relationship with Philip Rundell and by 1811 was a partner, and managing the workshops for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. During this period he kept his own marks and separate workshop, however Rundell, Bridge & Rundell were appointed Goldsmith in Ordinary to George III in 1804, and through them his reputation as a master silversmith grew. His talents lay in being able to transform ideas and designs from Rundell, Bridge & Rundell’s designers, William Theed II and later John Flaxman II. Rundell, Bridge & Rundell’s reputation grew due to the subsequent patronage of the Prince Regent (later George IV). Storr left RUNDELL, BRIDGE & RUNDELL in 1819 and went into partnership with John Mortimer, the assistant of a retiring retail goldsmith and jeweller, WILLIAM GRAY, of 13 New Bond Street. The firm was renamed STORR & MORTIMER and Storr concentrated on the manufacture of goods for Mortimer to sell in the shop at 13 New Bond Street. Storr and Mortimer, now manufacturing and retail goldsmiths, jewellers and silversmiths with an influential clientele, moved to 156, New Bond Street, in 1838. Storr retired to Tooting in 1839 and died in 1844.

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