A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more

ADMIRAL JOHN BYNG'S SILVER BY EDWARD WAKELIN (LOTS 91-96) The following five lots were supplied to that unfortunate victim of Judicial murder, Admiral John Byng (d.1751) coinciding with his purchase of the Kick's End Estate circa 1750. This represents one of Wakelin's earliest documented commissions. Edward Wakelin, the son of a baker of Uttoxeter, Stafford, was apprenticed to John Le Sage at the Golden Cup in Suffolk Street, London, on 3 June 1730 on payment of £21. Le Sage was an established supplier of silver wares to the aristocracy and eventually became Subordinate Goldsmith to the King. Wakelin completed his service in 1737 at the age of nineteen and probably stayed with Le Sage, assisting in his busy workshop, as he would not have been able to set up independently until the age of twenty-one. He is known to have lodged above the nearby workshop of George Wickes at the King's Arms in Panton Street; Wickes was the master of John Parker, who was to become Wakelin's partner in 1760. In May 1748 Wakelin married Ann Allen in Ely Chapel, Holborn, and they had three sons and two daughters, of which two sons and a daughter survived childhood; the eldest surviving son, John, born in 1751, was to become a partner in the business. On 2 November 1747 the transfer of some stock from Wickes to Wakelin was registered in Wickes' ledger. Wakelin seems to have set himself up as an independent supplier to Wickes, and his first mark, in two sizes, was registered as a largeworker on 17 November 1747 with his address given as Panton Street near Haymarket; his mark is remarkably similar to that of Wickes. He was made free on 7 September 1748 and took on his first apprentice. Most of his ledgers showing his relationship with Wickes and Netherton exist from 1747 through 1760, indicating his steady supply to the firm of such items as tea and coffee-pots, tureens and candlesticks. The lease of his house was assigned on 2 April 1748 for £400 with an annual rent of £40.0s.10d. and within a few years three apprentices, several skilled workers such as chasers and casters and more unskilled casual laborers and domestic staff were entered in his books. A skilled caster such as William Solomon, who supplied Wakelin, could expect to earn about the cost of a pair of his own candlesticks, or £29, every six months. Wakelin registered his second mark with John Parker some time after 1758, and signed a partnership agreement in September 1760 paying shares of £2,700 each. Parker, a gentleman's son from a Worcestershire family with extensive land holdings and connections, was sixteen years his junior, but having been apprenticed to George Wickes he was therefore the senior partner, and had his initials placed above those of Wakelin in the joint mark. By 1761 the firm was called Parker and Wakelin, and grew from strength to strength at a time when building and increased wealth led to greater demand for luxury goods to fill the new houses. The partnership lasted through 1776 when they both decided to retire, Wakelin to Surrey and Parker to Worcestershire. Wakelin's son, John, joined William Taylor to form Wakelin and Taylor, assisted by a gift of £1,400 from the retiring Wakelin. On the death of Taylor in 1792 Robert Garrard became a partner, and the Garrard name continues to this day. Edward Wakelin's output was large and of consistent quality of workmanship. The focus of his workshops was on baskets, dinner-plates, epergnes, candlesticks, soup-tureens and similar articles for the table. Clearly an astute businessman, he seems to have taken orders from a great portion of the English nobility, particularly during his partnership with Parker and on the death of Paul de Lamerie in 1751. The quality seems to have been sufficiently admired for him to have charged exceptionally high workmanship prices for the day on many pieces for which the accounts survive. His closest rival in the main years of his productivity was Thomas Heming. Wakelin died on 7 February 1784 at Mitcham, Surrey, his death recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year. For detailed information on the Wakelin partnership, see H. Clifford, Silver in London, The Parker and Wakelin Partnership 1760-1776, New York, 2004.

A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS

MARK OF JOHN PARKER AND EDWARD WAKELIN, LONDON, 1765

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS
MARK OF JOHN PARKER AND EDWARD WAKELIN, LONDON, 1765
Each baluster form on shaped circular base, cast and chased with scrolls, foliage, scalework and rocaille, and with spool-shaped integral socket with detachable circular nozzle, the base later engraved with two crests and motto with earl's coronet above, each marked on foot-rim, also numbered and engraved twice with scratchweight 'No 1 30"4' and 'No 2 30-2', the nozzles numbered only 'No 1' and 'No 2'
12 in. (30.5 cm.) high
72 oz. (2,263 gr.)
The crests are those of Byng, for John, 1st Earl of Strafford G.C.B. (1772-1860) (2)

Provenance

Supplied to Sir George Byng (d.1789) and by descent to John, 1st Earl of Strafford G.C.B. (1772-1860) and by descent.

Literature

Manuscript Inventory of Pictures and Plate created Heirloom under the Will of the late George Stevens Byng, Earl of Strafford, December 1887. J.E. Boodle, Surveyor, 89 Chancery Lane, London WC1: The Plate in the Custody of Messrs Garrard & Co, 25 Haymarket, SW1, p.16 (two large 12 1/4ins. chased scroll pattern table candlesticks)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please ignore the weight in the catalogue which includes loading. The scratch weights for these candlesticks total 60 ounces 6 pennyweights.

More from TWO LATE REGENCY COLLECTORS PHILIP JOHN MILES & GEORGE BYNG

View All