A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT CUP AND COVER

Details

A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT CUP AND COVER
LONDON, 1782, MAKER'S MARK OF THOMAS HEMING

Of vase form on spreading circular foot, applied with beading and chased with acanthus and guilloche bands, the body chased with vertical acanthus and a band of rosettes with tied ribbon and laurel swags above, each side applied with an oval plaque,one depicting a racing scene, the other with mares and foals,chased at the rim with a band of alternating anthemion and paterae within applied beaded borders, with two tied reeded and acanthus loop handles headed byopenwork acanthus, the spool form cover with conforming decoration and surmounted by a cast finial in the form of Victory, marked on base and cover--22in.(56cm.) high
(112oz.)

Lot Essay

The present cup belongs to a group of trophy cups applied with cast scenic medallions based on prints after Stubbs, Sartorius, and other sporting pictures. One of the earliest cups in this group was made to a design by Robert Adam, whose original drawing (now at the Soane Museum) served as a model for a number of Richmond Cups (Robert Rowe, Adam Silver, 1965, figs. 7, 8 and Gervase Jackson-Stops et al., Treasure Houses of Britain, 1985, fig. 460). A Doncaster Cup of 1776 by William Homes has a similar figural finial (James Lomax, British Silver at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall, 1992, fig. 9. See also race cups of 1774 and 1797, op. cit., figs. 8, 10, for similar cast medallions).