Description

An early English sterling silver chamber stick (also known as a go to bed) with a simple thumbpiece and carrying handle. Solid design and excellent heavy gauge silver as you’d expect from this date. Hand engraved to the top of the pan with the crest of a serpent intertwined with 4 arrows.

Weight 411 grams, 13.2 troy ounces.

Diameter 15cm. Spread 19cm.

London 1751.

Maker John Priest, specialist candlestick maker.

Sterling silver.

Marks. Stamped underneath with a full set of English silver hallmarks and scratchweight 13=15.

Literature. Silver 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 about 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 The earliest examples have straight handles (first flat, then tubular) which were superseded in the first part of the 18th century by a ring handle.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 about 1790 onwards some were made with an aperture at the base of the stem to take a pair of scissor snuffers.