MARK OF GEORGE GARTHORNE, LONDON, 1686

The monteith was designed with a notched rim to support the stems and bases of glasses while the bowls were cooling in iced water. A 1683 poem from the diary of Anthony Wood, Oxford describes the use of a monteith and states that the name comes ‘ from a fantastical Scot called ‘Monsieur Monteigh; who at that time or a little before wore the bottoms of his cloake or coate so notched U U U U.’ (G.A. Lee, British Silver Monteith Bowls, London, 1978, p. 10). Monteith bowls were introduced to England in the 1680s. The form of the present bowl, with a fixed rim and lacking handles, is identical to the earliest known monteith, also by George Garthorne, of 1684. The removable rim, so common in later monteiths, was not introduced until about 1686. A monteith by Garthorne of similar form and chased with chinoiserie was sold Christies, New York, 2 June 2009, lot 210.