Lot 363
A RARE SUITE OF THREE GEORGE IV TUREENS
ALEXANDER EDMONSTONE, EDINBURGH 1823
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 16 August 2017 at 12:00 BST
Description
retailed by Alexander Murray of Dundee, comprising a large soup tureen and cover and a pair of vegetable tureens, liners and covers, each of oval outline with baluster bellied form with cast acanthus handles and scroll supports, the pull off covers on domed form with gadrooned border and shell details, with cast artichoke and foliate finial, each piece with engraved armorial to body and crest to cover (3)
Dimensions
Soup - width: 39.5cm weight: 102oz, vegetable - width: 23cm weight: 37oz each
Footnote
Heraldry: The engravings may be blazoned as follows:
Arms: Argent a man’s heart gules ensigned with an Imperial crown proper on a chief azure three mullets of the field
Note: These arms pertain to the ancient Scottish lowland family of Douglas. They are generally borne as a quarter, either undifferenced or differenced, in order to show which branch of the family they pertain. Often the other quartering with which they are borne is difference enough. Here is shown the ‘plain’ arms of Douglas which should ordinarily be borne by the chief of the family/clan which is vested in the Douglas-Hamiltons, Dukes of Hamilton (and Brandon) as Heirs Male of the House of Douglas since 1761, but as the Dukes of Hamilton (and Brandon) bear the compound surname of Douglas-Hamilton they cannot at present be recognised as the Chiefs of the Clan Douglas. Although it cannot be stated with any degree of certainty, but given the penalties for using arms without authority in Scotland, perhaps this tureen was indeed part of the household silver of the Douglas-Hamiltons or another branch of the family who could very well prove their Douglas antecedents with a fair measure of certitude.