Description

A very desirable set of plain styled antique silver plates with handsome gadroon borders. Hand engraved to each top rim is an expansive armorial with a motto below for John Russell, Duke of Bedford. Excellent quality. Each is numbered on the underside (range 06-97) showing that the plates originally formed part of a very large set.

Total weight 6071 grams, 195.2 troy ounces.
Diameter 24.8cm.
London 1756.
Maker William Sanden.
18th century.
Sterling silver

Marks. Each plate is stamped underneath with a full and matching set of English silver hallmarks.

Arms. These are the marital arms of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, KG and his second wife Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower (d. 1794), eldest daughter of John, 1st Earl Gower. They married on 2 April 1737. The famous Russell motto “CHE SARA SARA” translates as “Whatever will be, will be”. John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, KG, PC, FRS (30 September 1710 – 5 January 1771) was a British Whig politician and statesman who served as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1757 to 1761. A leading member of the Whig party during the Seven Years’ War, he negotiated the 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict. The Duke was also an early promoter of cricket and a patron of the arts who commissioned numerous works from prominent artists, most notably Canaletto.

The escutcheon of the Knights and Ladies of the Garter encircles the coat or arms with the motto “Honi soit qui mal y pense” – “Shame to him who thinks evil of it”.

Literature. Dinner plates were usually made in dozens and larger quantities and often came as part of a suite of dishes including soup plates, oval serving plates and mazerines. These dishes very often came from grand houses and have finely executed coats of arms.

This large set of silver plates is in very good condition. Moderate signs of wear commensurate with age. The engraved armorials with slight loss of definition, a few minor dinks present, light scratching and wear from use which has not been polished away.

Maker: William Sanden

William Sanden (Sanders), London silversmith, no record of apprenticeship or freedom. Grimwade suggests that William Sanden, one mark entered as largeworker at St Martins La Grande in 1755, is the same person as William Sanders listed as a smallworker working at Old Bailey in 1773.

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