A design for a silver soup tureen by John Yenn, after Sir William Chambers, c. 1775

A drawing of a silver soup tureen. Profile. Shown less than full size.

A design for a silver soup tureen. On the body lions’ masks and rings joined by garlands. The stem of the base covered in waterleaves decoration. The lid has a gadrooned edge with a pinecone finial. This drawing is mostly taken from a design by Sir William Chambers, pencil additions to the foot are probably Yenn’s ideas. A pair of tureens of similar design (M.8:1 to 3-2010) , but lacking the waterleaf decorated support and replacing the lions’ masks with paterae, was marked by Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp and made in 1771-2 for the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam. Chambers worked for Fitzwilliam at Milton (1770- 1776) and at his London home in Piccadilly (1770- 1770). In an album bought from the dealer B. Quaritch on the 1st August 1863, together with another album for £3-10-0.

Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London. Chambers also designed furniture and silver. The silver is usually linked to clients for whom he was also designing architectural schemes. The designs for silver are all in the hand of the architect John Yenn, who was a pupil of Chambers, for whom he became a leading draughtsman, working for him from 1764 until the late 1770s, when he began to practice on his own account.

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