Description

A rare George I silver gilt hot milk jug with a carved wood side handle. The unusual ovoid body has a pull off cover with a finely engraved border. Hand engraved to the front is an excellent quality coat of arms with a coronet above for the Russell family.

Contains 200ml.
Total weight 298 grams, 9.6 troy oz.
Height 12.8cm high. Spread 12cm.
London 1718.
Maker Edward Holaday.
Britannia Standard silver purity.
18^th century.

See also 10216 George I Antique Silver Covered Sugar Bowl

Marks. Stamped underneath the body with a full set of English silver hallmarks, lid unmarked. Scratchweight 8=18.

Provenance: The Schroder Collection of Works of Art. Illustrated in Michael Clayton’s “Christie’s Pictorial History of English & American Silver” page 120 illustration 5 – sold on 13.12.67.

Literature: Milk wasn’t commonly taken in tea and coffee until the early eighteenth century and there are no milk jugs dating to before the Queen Anne period. Cream jugs without lids date from the 1720s onwards.

Britannia Standard silver is 95.8% pure. In 1696, so extensive had become the melting and clipping of coinage that the silversmiths were forbidden to use the sterling standard for their wares, but had to use a new higher standard, 95.8 per cent pure. New hallmarks were ordered, “the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia” and the lion’s head erased (torn off at the neck) replacing the lion passant and the leopard’s head crowned. This continued until the old standard of 92.5 per cent was restored in 1720.

The jug is in good condition and stands firmly. The cover fits well. The engraving is sharp. The gilding has very little wear. Moderate wear commensurate with age. A couple of small faults 1) a mark inside, where the foot has pushed through slightly - not waterproof 2) a couple of small splits to the top rim.

Maker: Edward Holaday

Edward Holaday, London silversmith, apprenticed to John Bache 1699, free 1709. Mark entered as largeworker in 1709. Died 1719 and Sarah Holaday entered her diagonal widow's mark on 22nd July that year. Edward’s mark is very similar to that of Edmund Holliday.

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