.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The arms are those of George, 6th Earl of Chesterfield (1805-1866), the grandson of the author of the celebrated Letters. He succeeded to the Earldom at the age of ten in 1815. He was Lord of the Bedchamber 1828-30 and in 1830 he married Anne Elizabeth, daughter of Cecil Weld, Lord Forester of Willey.
In his youth, Chesterfield was held to be one of the most brilliant men of fashion. However, his extravagance led to the intense disapproval of Henry Greville who wrote in his Memoirs "It makes me sad to see Bretby and the mode of life there: idleness, folly, waste and a constant progress to ruin; a princely fortune dilapidated by sheer indolence, because the obstinate spoiled owner will neither look into his affairs nor let anybody else look into them. He lies in bed half the day and rises to run after pleasure in whatever shape he can pursue it..." (September 16, 1846).
These dinner plates form part of an extensive silver service evidently commissioned for the 6th Earl's twenty-first birthday celebrations. The plates in the service are copies of others made for the 4th Earl of Chesterfield by David Willaume in 1726/27 to augment the magnificent ambassadorial plate issued to him in that year (see C. Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, English Silver 1680-1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection, 1996, pp. 98-109). Additions were made from the same model by Wakelin & Taylor in the 1770s, but the prodigious quantity of plate ordered from Garrard's at the time of the 6th Earl's coming of age is unparalleled. A set of 24 dinner plates from the present service also by Robert Garrard II of 1826 sold in these rooms, 28 April 1992, lot 163, and a set of 12 dinner plates from this service sold at Sotheby's, London, June 6, 1996, lot 401.
In his youth, Chesterfield was held to be one of the most brilliant men of fashion. However, his extravagance led to the intense disapproval of Henry Greville who wrote in his Memoirs "It makes me sad to see Bretby and the mode of life there: idleness, folly, waste and a constant progress to ruin; a princely fortune dilapidated by sheer indolence, because the obstinate spoiled owner will neither look into his affairs nor let anybody else look into them. He lies in bed half the day and rises to run after pleasure in whatever shape he can pursue it..." (September 16, 1846).
These dinner plates form part of an extensive silver service evidently commissioned for the 6th Earl's twenty-first birthday celebrations. The plates in the service are copies of others made for the 4th Earl of Chesterfield by David Willaume in 1726/27 to augment the magnificent ambassadorial plate issued to him in that year (see C. Hartop, The Huguenot Legacy, English Silver 1680-1760 from the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection, 1996, pp. 98-109). Additions were made from the same model by Wakelin & Taylor in the 1770s, but the prodigious quantity of plate ordered from Garrard's at the time of the 6th Earl's coming of age is unparalleled. A set of 24 dinner plates from the present service also by Robert Garrard II of 1826 sold in these rooms, 28 April 1992, lot 163, and a set of 12 dinner plates from this service sold at Sotheby's, London, June 6, 1996, lot 401.