Lot Essay
A magnificent supper equipage, en-suite with these plates and also by Biennais, was sold as lot 38 in Lady Nicholson's sale at Sotheby's, 24 April 1958. The equipage is now in the Al Tajir Collection and was exhibited London, Christie's, The Glory of the Goldsmith, 1990, no. 22. The plates and the supper set are listed together in the manuscript inventories of 1828 and 1846. There is no record of the commission in the family papers however the Seymour crest and motto, which is an integral part of the scrolling foliage decoration on the central ecuelle cover of the supper set, points to the engraving being original and therefore engraved for the 2nd Marquess.
The 3rd Marquess also purchased a similar supper set at The Stowe Sale, Christie's, 15 August 1848, the seventeenth day, lot 323, (£461 to Redfern). This was sold as having once belonged to Napoleon I and at some point before the 1955 sale this was confused with the supper tray listed in the 1828 and 1846 inventories
A faint inscription is indistinctly engraved on the reverse of one plate. It records five names and the date 2 July 1827. The names appear to be Cooke, Fitzgerald, Mitchell and two further names which are illegible. The 3rd Marquess (1777-1842) was sent as envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1827 in order to present Nicholas I with the Order of the Garter. The ceremony took place on 8 July at the Tsarskoé-Selo Palace. P. Lacroix notes in Histoire de la Vie et du Règne de Nicholas Ier, Paris, 1866, pp. 28-29 that the British delegation made up of 'des personnages les plus considérable de l'aristocratie anglais' had arrived on 28 June. The party included Colonel Cooke whose name appears on the reverse of the plate. This faint inscription must record some event or dinner at the Tsarkoé Selo Palace. Princess Lieven (1785-1857), the wife of the Russian ambassador to the Court of St. James, writes in one her many letters to her brother General Alexander Benkendorff of the Marquess' delegation, March 1827). In an earlier letter she writes of Cooke as being 'still the purveyor-in-ordinary of lovely caskets and extravagant fashions' (10/22 March 1822). Col. Cooke, later Major General Sir Henry Cooke (1783-1837), was one of 'the dandies' at King George IV's court and would have known both Princess Lieven and her brother.
The supper equipage was a form of dining service for which Biennais was renown. A similar example to the Hertford/Tajir set is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gift of Audrey Love, illustrated A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Antiquity Revisited, English and French Silver-Gilt, from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997, fig. 24. It was reputed to have been given by Napoleon to his sister, Pauline Borgese, on his return from Elba and many of Napoleon's generals commissioned similar sets. The elegant antique classical style of the services with their refined berried laurel borders epitomises the style introduced to France in the late 18th century by Charles Percier (d.1838) and popularised by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's, Receuil de Decorations Interieurs, Paris, 1801. It was adopted by the leading goldsmiths of the day such as Biennais and Odiot and became the style of first Empire.
We are grateful to Robert Wenley of the Wallace Collection for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry
The 3rd Marquess also purchased a similar supper set at The Stowe Sale, Christie's, 15 August 1848, the seventeenth day, lot 323, (£461 to Redfern). This was sold as having once belonged to Napoleon I and at some point before the 1955 sale this was confused with the supper tray listed in the 1828 and 1846 inventories
A faint inscription is indistinctly engraved on the reverse of one plate. It records five names and the date 2 July 1827. The names appear to be Cooke, Fitzgerald, Mitchell and two further names which are illegible. The 3rd Marquess (1777-1842) was sent as envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1827 in order to present Nicholas I with the Order of the Garter. The ceremony took place on 8 July at the Tsarskoé-Selo Palace. P. Lacroix notes in Histoire de la Vie et du Règne de Nicholas Ier, Paris, 1866, pp. 28-29 that the British delegation made up of 'des personnages les plus considérable de l'aristocratie anglais' had arrived on 28 June. The party included Colonel Cooke whose name appears on the reverse of the plate. This faint inscription must record some event or dinner at the Tsarkoé Selo Palace. Princess Lieven (1785-1857), the wife of the Russian ambassador to the Court of St. James, writes in one her many letters to her brother General Alexander Benkendorff of the Marquess' delegation, March 1827). In an earlier letter she writes of Cooke as being 'still the purveyor-in-ordinary of lovely caskets and extravagant fashions' (10/22 March 1822). Col. Cooke, later Major General Sir Henry Cooke (1783-1837), was one of 'the dandies' at King George IV's court and would have known both Princess Lieven and her brother.
The supper equipage was a form of dining service for which Biennais was renown. A similar example to the Hertford/Tajir set is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gift of Audrey Love, illustrated A. Phillips and J. Sloane, Antiquity Revisited, English and French Silver-Gilt, from the Collection of Audrey Love, London, 1997, fig. 24. It was reputed to have been given by Napoleon to his sister, Pauline Borgese, on his return from Elba and many of Napoleon's generals commissioned similar sets. The elegant antique classical style of the services with their refined berried laurel borders epitomises the style introduced to France in the late 18th century by Charles Percier (d.1838) and popularised by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's, Receuil de Decorations Interieurs, Paris, 1801. It was adopted by the leading goldsmiths of the day such as Biennais and Odiot and became the style of first Empire.
We are grateful to Robert Wenley of the Wallace Collection for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry