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Not currently on display at the V&A

Ewer

1742-1743 (hallmarked)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Algernon Coote, Sixth Earl of Mountrath was one of de Lamerie's most important clients during the late 1730s and early 1740s, ordering sizeable quantities of plate from the goldsmith. He gave him considerable freedom to produce designs in the fullest and most imaginative rococo taste. This ewer and companion dish were produced in the middle of de Lamerie's career, when his powers of inventiveness were at their zenith and they are part of one of the most interesting groups of English 18th century plate ever produced. They demonstrate the quality of modelling associated with the most sophisticated rococo silver produced in London in the mid-18th century.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Raised, embossed, cast and chased silver
Brief description
Silver, London hallmarks for 1742-3, mark of Paul de Lamerie
Physical description
Silver helmet-shaped ewer standing on a shaped circular foot chased with flowers, waves and a lizard, the stem modeled as a kneeling putto, the body chased with a figure of Neptune in a seascape. The coat of arms of Coote impaling Newport with motto, supporters and Earl's coronet is modelled in relief under the spout.
Dimensions
  • Height: 46.7cm
  • Weight: 3889g
  • Width: 35.8cm
  • Of base diameter: 18.8cm
Scratch weight: 125-12 Measured 12/01/24 IW
Content description
The coat of arms of Algernon Coote, 6th Earl of Mountrath is Argent, a chevron sable between three coots purpure impaling those of his wife, Diana, daughter of Richard Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford, Argent, a chevron gules, between three leopards' faces sable. The supporters: represent the Coote wolf sable ducally gorged argent and the Newport leopard guardant purpure; Vincit veritas is the Coote family motto. The coat of arms is surmounted by an Earl's coronet.
Style
Marks and inscriptions
  • London hallmarks for 1742-3
    Translation
    Vincit Veritas (Truth Conquers) the motto of the Coote family
  • Mark of Paul de Lamerie
Gallery label
(Gallery 71, case 2) 7. The Mountrath Ewer 1742–43 This ewer shows the sea god Neptune controlling the winds, an appropriate choice for a water vessel. Algernon Coote, sixth Earl of Mountrath, was one of de Lamerie’s most important clients. He commissioned this ewer, probably the work of the Maynard Master. London, England; Paul de Lamerie (1688–1751), attributed to the Maynard Master Silver Museum no. Loan:Gilbert.721:1-2008(16/11/2016)
Credit line
The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Object history
Provenance: Algernon, sixth earl of Mountrath. By descent to the earl of Portarlington. Colonel A. Heywood-Lonsdale, sale, Christie's, lot 126, 27/06/1956. Sir George Dowty. Purchased from J. H. Bourdon-Smith, Ltd., London, 1971.
Historical context
This ewer is accompanied by a spectacular basin and the set were intended for display on a dining room buffet to emphasize the status of the patron. Although the 6th Earl's father lived at 30 Burlington Street, London, in c.1721, see the basement plan designed by Lord Burlington in the V&A (E.2124:100-1992) by the early 1740s the 6th Earl and Countess of Mountrath lived in Grosvenor Square, in London's fashionable Mayfair. A similar commission from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, dates from 1741, and is still used for display on the buffet in the dining hall of the London guild which controls the quality of the production of silver in the British metropolis, and which Paul de Lamerie served as a Warden.

Algernon Coote, 6th Earl of Mountrath was born and educated in London and represented Castle Rising, Norfolk as MP from 1724-34 and Hedon, Yorkshire from 1742-1744. His wife outlived him by 22 years, and in her will specified a legacy of £2500 for the construction of a vault and a monument in the Holles Chapel, Westminster Abbey. The monument was designed by William Chambers and executed by Joseph Wilton and featured figures of the 6th Earl and Countess of Mountrath.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Algernon Coote, Sixth Earl of Mountrath was one of de Lamerie's most important clients during the late 1730s and early 1740s, ordering sizeable quantities of plate from the goldsmith. He gave him considerable freedom to produce designs in the fullest and most imaginative rococo taste. This ewer and companion dish were produced in the middle of de Lamerie's career, when his powers of inventiveness were at their zenith and they are part of one of the most interesting groups of English 18th century plate ever produced. They demonstrate the quality of modelling associated with the most sophisticated rococo silver produced in London in the mid-18th century.

Sir Arthur Gilbert and his wife Rosalinde formed one of the world's great decorative art collections, including silver, mosaics, enamelled portrait miniatures and gold boxes. Arthur Gilbert donated his extraordinary collection to Britain in 1996.
Associated object
Bibliographic references
  • Edwards, R., and L.L.G. Ramsay, eds. The Connoisseur Period Guide to the Houses, Decorations, Furnishings and Chattels of the Classic Periods.. New York: Reynal and Company, 1957-58, vol. 3, pp. 76, 78, pl. 41.; Timothy Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, Los Angeles, 1988, pp. 250-255
  • Clayton, Michael. The Collector's dictionary of the silver and gold of Great Britain and North America. London: Country Life Books/Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1971, p. 163, no. 336
  • Grimwade, Arthur. Rococo Silver, 1727-1765. London: Faber and Faber, 1974, p. 48, pl. 54B. ISBN.0671105262
  • Hillier, Bevis. 'The Gilbert Collection of Silver'. The Connoisseur, June 1976, vol. 192, no.772, p.118, nos. 8A, 8B.
  • Bowman, Leslie Greene. 'Huguenot & Rococo Riches'. The Antique Collector, vol. 56, no. 11, November 1985, p. 107, fig. 9
  • Clayton, Michael. The Collector's dictionary of the silver and gold of Great Britain and North America. 2nd ed. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 1985, no. 336
  • Schroder, Timothy. 'Evidence without documents: Patterns of Ornament in Rococo and Regence silver'. 'Rococo Silver in England and its Colonies'. Papers from a symposium at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 2004. Silver Studies: The Journal of the Silver Society, Number 20. London: The Silver Society, 2006, p.62, fig 98.
  • Schroder, Timothy. The Gilbert collection of gold and silver. Los Angeles (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) 1988, cat. no. 65, pp. 249-255. ISBN.0875871445
  • Schroder, Timothy, ed. The Gilbert Collection at the V&A. London (V&A Publishing) 2009, p. 13, pl. 3. ISBN9781851775934
  • Alcorn, Ellenor, with a foreword by Tessa Murdoch. Beyond the maker's mark: Paul de Lamerie Silver in the Cahn Collection. Cambridge: John Adamson, 2006, p. 30, fig. 22.
  • Jones, William Ezelle, Monumental Silver: Selections from the Gilbert Collection. Los Angeles : Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1977 no.17
  • Donahue, Kenneth, A Decade of Collecting: 1965-1975, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1975.
Other numbers
  • SG 38A - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • M.77.2.9 - LACMA
  • 1996.868 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
  • SG 362 i - Arthur Gilbert Number
  • 2001.10 - The Gilbert Collection, Somerset House
Collection
Accession number
LOAN:GILBERT.721:1-2008

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Record createdJune 19, 2008
Record URL
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