Object Type
As a vessel for serving sauce, the sauce boat came to Britain from the French Court in the early 18th century as a consequence of the new fashion for Continental-style sauces. An early pair was supplied by the Jewel Office (a state department storing, lending and buying silver for officials) to John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, in 1719. The first sauce boats were double-lipped, but forms that poured from one lip only became more popular after 1730. Sauce boats were often sold with stands and ladles in sets of four, although one of the largest and grandest services, made in 1745-47 for James Fitzgerald, 20th Earl (later Duke) of Leinster (died 1773), contained ten.

People
This sauce boat is thought to have been made by the silversmith Nicholas Sprimont (1716-1771). This attribution is based on a fully marked example with its original stand in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sprimont probably trained in the family silversmithing business in Liège, but was working in England by 1742. His marked silver dates from 1743-1747. Sprimont's second career, that of a porcelain manufacturer, began around 1745, and some of his designs for silver influenced the shapes and styles of porcelain made at the Chelsea porcelain factory in its early years.

Time
The fashion for shellwork and marine forms seen in this sauce boat is typical of the Rococo style, which lasted from the 1730s to the 1760s. Sprimont, was a highly competent designer, draughtsman and modeller who probably had access to continental Rococo design through his background and training as well as through his association with artists of the St Martin's Lane Academy in London, such as the painter and printmaker William Hogarth (1697-1762) and the immigrant sculptor Louis-François Roubiliac (1705-1762), who played an important role in introducing the Rococo style to Britain.