A GEORGE II SILVER HOT-WATER JUG

Details

A GEORGE II SILVER HOT-WATER JUG
LONDON, 1749, MAKER'S MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE

Of baluster form, the body elaborately repousse and chased on each side with Chinamen, one holding a parasol, within foliate scroll and rocaille cartouches joined by foliate scrolls and flowerheads, on a scalework ground, the short spout formed of coffee plant sprays, the raffia covered scroll handle issuing from similar applied foliage, engraved above with a coat-of-arms within an asymmetrical foliate scroll and rocaille cartouche, the hinged domed cover chased with similar decoration below an openwork coffee plant finial, marked under base and on cover--7 3/4in. (19.6cm.) high
(gross weight 14 oz.)

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, December 4, 1969, lot 231

Lot Essay

The arms are those of Hyde.

A virtually identical coffee jug by de Lamerie of the same year is in the collection of the Sterling and Francine Clarke Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (inv. no. 242). Beth Carver Wees, in her catalogue entry of this in the exhibition catalogue, Paul de Lamerie at the Sign of the Golden Ball, 1990, no. 116, discusses the use of coffee plant imagery on coffee pots of this period, and suggests that perhaps on account of the short spout these vessels were used for turkish coffee which enjoyed a vogue during the mid-18th century.