Description

A fine pair of antique sterling silver salvers with shaped borders and scroll feet. Hand engraved to the centre is a contemporary armorial within a decorative cartouche. The inside border is beautifully hand chased with shells and scrolls. These small size trays are often referred to as waiters and are ideal for use with small objects such as glasses and bottles.

Total weight 728 grams, 23.4 troy ounces.
Diameter 18.9cm. Height 2.2cm.
London 1741.
Maker George Wickes, Royal goldsmith.
Sterling silver.

Marks. Both are stamped underneath with a full and matching set of English silver hallmarks. Each has a scratchweight in old fashioned script.

Literature. The traditional form of salver with plain flat surfaces and small feet at the edge, rarely found before the reign of George I, was made in various forms such as round, rectangular, oval and octagonal and are an ideal starting off point for collectors of early silver.

The term “waiter” is not commonly used but relates to small examples less than 6 or 7 inches; these have become very popular now to stand a bottle or wine glass.

Both salvers are in very good condition. Excellent quality engraving; crisp and contemporary.

Maker: George Wickes

George Wickes (b. 1698; d 1761), Royal Goldsmith, apprenticed to Samuel Wastell, free 1720. 1st marks 1721-2. 1730-35 partnership with John Craig. 1735 Wickes was appointed goldsmith to Frederick, Prince of Wales and subsequently obtained numerous commissions from royalty, aristocracy and gentry. One of Wickes's most important works was the Pelham Gold Cup, 1736, designed by William Kent and made for Colonel James Pelham, Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales. Much of Wickes's work is in the exuberant Rococo style popularized by the Prince, for example the 170-piece dinner service 1745-7 made for James Fitzgerald, 20th Earl of Kildare (later Duke of Leinster; 1722-73). Such features as castwork in Wickes' pieces are of equal quality to that made by contemporary Huguenot goldsmiths, for example Paul de Lamerie. Wickes employed a number of subcontractors, the most important of whom was Edward Wakelin, who had virtually taken control of the manufacturing side of the firm by 1747. He supplied Wickes with tableware in the Rococo style, eg the set of 1753 silver-gilt vases at Burghley House, Cambs and an unusual pair of 1755 tureens with wave-patterned and ribbed bodies. In 1750 Wickes took his former apprentice Samuel Netherton (1723-1803), and not Wakelin, into partnership. In 1760, however, on the retirement of both Wickes and Netherton, Wakelin and John Parker (apprenticed to Wickes in 1751) took over the business.

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