Lot 398
A RARE GEORGE I SUGAR BOWL AND COVER
HENRY BETHUNE, EDINBURGH 1725
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 16 August 2017 at 12:00 BST
Description
the deep hemispherical plain bowl with engraved crest, raised on a short stem and domed spreading foot, the pull of stepped cover with flat central section, the rim with matching engraved crest
Dimensions
Diameter: 11.8cm, height: 9.5cm, weight: 12.5oz
Footnote
Note: When compared to the survival of early teapots the rarity of early sugar bowls becomes much more apparent. However, when this is looked at more closely it would appear that fewer than 20 per cent of these still have their original cover. While it cannot be guaranteed that all were created with a cover, it does appear that the finest tea services had covered sugar bowls and, in some cases, covers which could be used as a tea pot stand as well.
Examples of this pattern are obviously meant to match with the fine bullet teapots of the period and when looked at closely the scale of the bowl matches, almost identically, the size of the teapots. This, combined with the use of the same short stems and domed feet, would appear to suggest these are the beginning of the matching tea service. This said, at this early period it would only have been very high status clients who would have been able to afford a full tea service in silver, again pointing to the rarity of some of the constituent parts which would likely have been supplied in porcelain or ceramics.
The crest as engraved upon this George I Scottish Silver Sugar Bowl and Cover by Henry Bethune hallmarked Edinburgh 1725 is that of the family of Walter.
It may be blazoned as follows:
Crest: A stork drinking out of a whelk shell all proper
This crest is borne by at least two Walter families both of which hail from southern England, the Walters, of Ashbury in the County of Devon and the Walters, of Bearwood in the County of Berkshire. The Ashbury Walters were living there from the reign of King James VI and I although they descend from a John Walter, of Crawdon in the County of Cambridge. The family were recorded in the Heralds’ Visitation of the County of Devon that took place in 1620. The Bearwood Walters descend from a family who was settled at Evesham in the County of Worcestershire in the 17th Century. A member of this family was John Walter (died 1812), of Teddington Grove in the County of Middlesex who founded The Times newspaper as The Daily Universal Register on the 1st January 1785. There appears to be no genealogical connection between the Devonian and Berkshire families.
At the present distance in time, we cannot be certain how a piece of Scottish silver came into the possession of the one or other of these families. Whether they had a Scottish connection or they acquired the cup from within the market in London or elsewhere in England and caused their crest to be engraved on same will remain unanswered.