Silver, England (London), 1683-4, mark of John Richardson.

Silver, with two reeded handles, engraved on one side with a shield of arms, and on the bottom with the letter P.

Bequeathed by Rev. T. W. Webb

John Richardson, who made this piece, was among the most important goldsmiths in London in the late seventeenth century. Born in Worcester in the early 1640s, he was apprenticed to the prominent London goldsmith Henry Greenway and eventually took over his master's business when Greenway retired in 1670. Richardson enjoyed a successful career: the scale of his activity is reflected in the number of apprentices (four) attached to his workshop, and in the importance of the commissions entrusted to him. These included candlesticks, flagons, a basin and altar cruets for Westminster Abbey, marked for London 1684-85.
Personal matters appear to have motivated his return to Worcester in around 1695, and he died there in 1697-98.
Thomas Pengelly the elder was a London Levant merchant and married Rachel Baines; he commissioned this porringer from one of the more prominent London goldsmiths of the period.
The porringer was presented to the Museum in 1885 by the Rev. T W Webb.

Thomas Pengelly's son also named Thomas was born at his parents' London home in Moorfields; the family's main home was Churchgate in Cheshunt, Buckinghamshire, where Richard Cromwell took refuge after the restoration of the monarchy. Thomas the younger was called to the Bar and became an expert corporation law. He was knighted in 1719 and appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1727.

A silver two-handled porringer engraved with the arms of Pengelly impaling Baines for Thomas Pengelly and his wife Rachel Baines, London, made by the goldsmith John Richardson in 1683-84.

238-1885