Lot Essay
This ladle was one of four listed in the Valadier accounts, now in the Vatican archives, made out to Prince Marc Antonio (sic) Borghese, dated 1784:
"Per spese, e fattura della doratura fatta alli 4:
sgumarelli delle due pile, e terrine Scudi 8:20"
The word "pile" is an 18th century Italian term for a soup-tureen, while "terrine" probably refers to a pot used for stews or ragouts - in French, pot-à-oille. A similarly chased ladle has in the past been identified as part of a dinner service supplied to Prince Marcantonio Borghese by Luigi Valadier in 1784 (Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, Artemis Group, London, 15 May-12 June, 1991. The ladle is also illustrated and dated 1783 in A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, vol. II, pl. 329). However, the wording of the account, and indeed the amount charged, indicates that the invoice was not for making, but rather gilding, ladles which were in existence. Further, the Rome town mark on both ladles is one that appears no later than 1769. In 1768-1769, the Valadier workshop supplied a large number of pieces for the "new buffet" of Prince Marcantonio including over a hundred serving dishes of various forms, eight salt-cellars and twelve ladles. At a slightly later date, Valadier supplied place settings for sixty people (see A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Luigi Valadier au Louvre, Paris, 1994, p. 30). It would seem then highly probable that the four ladles described in the 1784 account belong to the earlier service. The dating of these ladles is of considerable significance in placing Valadier firmly in the vanguard of neo-classical designers in Europe. (We are grateful to Aldo Vitali and Ubaldo Vitali for identifying the town mark as that used between 1767 and 1769 - see also C. Bulgari, Argentieri Gemmari e Orafi d'Italia, Rome, 1958, vol. 1, p. 26, no. 130).
Apart from the silver of 1767-1769, Valadier also supplied the Prince with ormolu-mounted furniture and works of art for the modernisation of his Palace from 1773. In 1784, to complement the interior decoration, Valadier appears then to have gilded pieces from the 1767-1769 service and also supplied a magnificient new, mostly silver-gilt, dinner-service which has been described as "the most important secular commission received by Luigi Valadier" (see Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, op. cit. p. 88).
The survival of a group of designs by the Valadier workshop, which formed the basis of the 1991 Valadier exhibition, and the discovery of Valadier's accounts to Marcantonio Borghese, have allowed us to reconstruct the 1784 service quite accurately. One design for a similar ladle but with grotesque mask in place of the Medusa was apparently never executed (cat. no. 51j). The 1784 account, however, records a charge for 48 coffee-spoons with Medusa stems, probably matching the pattern of the 1769 ladles. Significantly, the 1784 coffee-spoons were described as matching the "argenteria nobile" which presumably refers to the table-service for sixty people supplied shortly after 1769.
Surviving silver from the 1784 service is extremely rare. If it is accepted that the two ladles date from the earlier commission, then there remain only a pair of sauce-tureens after the design mentioned above and two two-handled silver-gilt trays. The sauce-tureens are now in the Al Tajir collection (see exhibition catalogue, The Glory of the Goldsmith, London, 1989, p. 22, no. 11).
The 1784 account refers to four ladles of which three were sold in the Borghese Palace sale in 1892 in Rome. They were included with the huge Biennais service made for Prince Camillo Borghese, and all was sold as lot 847. This service then changed hands several times in its entirety before being finally split up in Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick's sale at the American Art Association/Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, on 5 January 1934. One of these ladles reappeared in the sale of the collection of John T. Dorrance, Jr. (Sotheby's New York, 20-21 October, 1989, lot 696) and is now in a private collection (illustrated in Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, op. cit., p. 117, pl. 20). The present whereabouts of the other two are unknown.
Given its provenance, one can assume that the present ladle was acquired at the same time as Valadier's silver-gilt trays from the 1784 Borghese service, now at the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery Museum, Brighton. These trays are engraved with the arms of Baron Stewart and his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest. They married in April 1819 and their accolé coats-of-arms beneath a baron's coronet dates the tray from between 1819 and August 1822, when Baron Stewart succeeded his half-brother as the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The 3rd Marquess, a distinguished soldier and diplomat, was a close and able aide to the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular wars. He was attached to the armies of the Allies in 1813-1814 and became Ambassador to Vienna. He died in 1854.
"Per spese, e fattura della doratura fatta alli 4:
sgumarelli delle due pile, e terrine Scudi 8:20"
The word "pile" is an 18th century Italian term for a soup-tureen, while "terrine" probably refers to a pot used for stews or ragouts - in French, pot-à-oille. A similarly chased ladle has in the past been identified as part of a dinner service supplied to Prince Marcantonio Borghese by Luigi Valadier in 1784 (Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, Artemis Group, London, 15 May-12 June, 1991. The ladle is also illustrated and dated 1783 in A. González-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, vol. II, pl. 329). However, the wording of the account, and indeed the amount charged, indicates that the invoice was not for making, but rather gilding, ladles which were in existence. Further, the Rome town mark on both ladles is one that appears no later than 1769. In 1768-1769, the Valadier workshop supplied a large number of pieces for the "new buffet" of Prince Marcantonio including over a hundred serving dishes of various forms, eight salt-cellars and twelve ladles. At a slightly later date, Valadier supplied place settings for sixty people (see A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Luigi Valadier au Louvre, Paris, 1994, p. 30). It would seem then highly probable that the four ladles described in the 1784 account belong to the earlier service. The dating of these ladles is of considerable significance in placing Valadier firmly in the vanguard of neo-classical designers in Europe. (We are grateful to Aldo Vitali and Ubaldo Vitali for identifying the town mark as that used between 1767 and 1769 - see also C. Bulgari, Argentieri Gemmari e Orafi d'Italia, Rome, 1958, vol. 1, p. 26, no. 130).
Apart from the silver of 1767-1769, Valadier also supplied the Prince with ormolu-mounted furniture and works of art for the modernisation of his Palace from 1773. In 1784, to complement the interior decoration, Valadier appears then to have gilded pieces from the 1767-1769 service and also supplied a magnificient new, mostly silver-gilt, dinner-service which has been described as "the most important secular commission received by Luigi Valadier" (see Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, op. cit. p. 88).
The survival of a group of designs by the Valadier workshop, which formed the basis of the 1991 Valadier exhibition, and the discovery of Valadier's accounts to Marcantonio Borghese, have allowed us to reconstruct the 1784 service quite accurately. One design for a similar ladle but with grotesque mask in place of the Medusa was apparently never executed (cat. no. 51j). The 1784 account, however, records a charge for 48 coffee-spoons with Medusa stems, probably matching the pattern of the 1769 ladles. Significantly, the 1784 coffee-spoons were described as matching the "argenteria nobile" which presumably refers to the table-service for sixty people supplied shortly after 1769.
Surviving silver from the 1784 service is extremely rare. If it is accepted that the two ladles date from the earlier commission, then there remain only a pair of sauce-tureens after the design mentioned above and two two-handled silver-gilt trays. The sauce-tureens are now in the Al Tajir collection (see exhibition catalogue, The Glory of the Goldsmith, London, 1989, p. 22, no. 11).
The 1784 account refers to four ladles of which three were sold in the Borghese Palace sale in 1892 in Rome. They were included with the huge Biennais service made for Prince Camillo Borghese, and all was sold as lot 847. This service then changed hands several times in its entirety before being finally split up in Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick's sale at the American Art Association/Anderson Galleries Inc., New York, on 5 January 1934. One of these ladles reappeared in the sale of the collection of John T. Dorrance, Jr. (Sotheby's New York, 20-21 October, 1989, lot 696) and is now in a private collection (illustrated in Valadier: Three Generations of Roman Goldsmiths, op. cit., p. 117, pl. 20). The present whereabouts of the other two are unknown.
Given its provenance, one can assume that the present ladle was acquired at the same time as Valadier's silver-gilt trays from the 1784 Borghese service, now at the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery Museum, Brighton. These trays are engraved with the arms of Baron Stewart and his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest. They married in April 1819 and their accolé coats-of-arms beneath a baron's coronet dates the tray from between 1819 and August 1822, when Baron Stewart succeeded his half-brother as the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The 3rd Marquess, a distinguished soldier and diplomat, was a close and able aide to the Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular wars. He was attached to the armies of the Allies in 1813-1814 and became Ambassador to Vienna. He died in 1854.