LONDON, 1684, MAKER'S MARK RS WITH A MULLET BELOW IN HEART SHAPED PUNCH, ATTRIBUTED TO ROGER STRICKLAND

The maker's mark RS with a mullet or cinquefoil below, in a heart shaped shield appears on a number of small works including a tumbler of 1685 and a counter box, circa 1685, both in the Huntington Collection, as cited by Dr. David Mitchell in Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, Woodbridge, 2017, p. 478. He suggests the mark is probably for Roger Strickland, whose master also made small domestic plate and whose maker's mark is similarly fashioned with a heart shaped punch, and with a cinquefoil below the initials.

The porringer is boldly chased with scrolling foliage and putti in a style favoured by makers such as Thomas Jenkins and Jacob Bodendick. The chasing here has been compared to that found on a toilet service by Jacob Bodendick, sold Sotheby's, London 22 November 1951, lot 127. A possible design source for the ornament is the drawings of Polifilo Giancarli (fl.c.1620-1657), engraved by Odoardo Fialetti (1573-1626/27), published first in Venice as Disegni Varii di Polifilo Zancarli, by Tasio Giancarli, later issued in London in the 1670s.