In the Manner of Paul De Lamerie. An important, and exceptionally fine, George II Cast Border Salver made in London in 1752 by Phillips Garden.

The Salver is of an exceptional weight and quality in terms of both design and production, which is to be expected with pieces from the workshops of Phillips Garden.  The Salver is of the larger size and would have been used to serve drinks, or decoratively on the table, and stands on four cast scroll feet, decorated with trailing vines and grapes.  The raised cast moulded border is made in four sections and is chased and pierced displaying very detailed fruiting trailing vines, with shell mounted panels applied to the rim.    The vines are interspersed with crisp detailed masks of Bacchus, the God of Wine, with vines in his hair.  Two of the masks, also show a subtle lion's head below, a design feature of the  work by De Lamerie. The crispness and quality of the border is outstanding.  The centre of the Salver is engraved with a contemporary Armorial surrounded by a shell, scroll and floral spray cartouche.  The Armorial is that of the Hobby family of Kent (granted in 1580) impaling that of the Bland family.  As intimated, the Salver is in outstanding condition and of the finest quality.  It is very well marked on the reverse.

Much has been written about the connection between the silversmiths Phillips Garden and Paul De Lamerie.  It is widely thought that Garden purchased some of the tools and casting models from De Lamerie's workshop when he died in 1751, as identical features can be seen in the work of De Lamerie and pieces made by Phillips Garden from 1752.  The cast border Salver pictured, and made by De Lamerie in 1743, has striking similarities in the trailing vines, and bacchanalian masks, in the border.  This was formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst and now in the Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver, on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Philips Garden son of John Garden late Citizen and Draper of London deceased, was apprenticed to Gawen Nash, 4 February 1730 on payment of £5 of the charity of Christ's Hospital London.   Free, 3 October 1738. Mark entered as smallworker, 12 June 1738. Address: Gutter Lane. 'Free of Goldsmiths'.  Second mark as largeworker, 23 June 1739. Third, 12 March 1744. Address: St. Paul's Churchyard.   Livery, September 1746.   Fourth mark, 29 October 1748.   Fifth, 18 April 1751. Heal records him as Phillips Garden, working goldsmith and jeweller, Gutter Lane, 1739; and at the Golden Lion, North side of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1739-1762 when bankrupt, and states he was succeeded by John Townsend in the latter year.   Resigned from Livery, 9 December 1763.   Phillips Garden, goldsmith Marylebone, appears in the Parl. Report List 1773.   Henry Garden, son of Phillip Garden, goldsmith of St.Paul's Churchyard was admitted to St.Paul's School (almost alongside his father's shop), 7 April 1749, aged nine.   At his best Garden is an admirable exponent of the rococo style. As intimated, there has always been believed that there was a connection between the silversmiths Philip Garden and Paul de Lamerie.   It has been suggested that Garden purchased the tools and models from de Lamerie’s workshop when he died in 1751 (E. M. Alcorn, English Silver in The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 2, 2000, p. 177).   Just three years before his death, de Lamerie made a coffee pot with a short spout, cast with coffee leaves and blossoms upon a matted ground above a shell (George Sidney, Beverley Hills, California; Christie’s, New York, 24 May 1977, lot 231).   A coffeepot by Garden and marked for 1752 has the identical spout to the Lamerie example, substantiating the belief that Garden was using the De Lamerie casting moulds.

Diameter: 13 inches, 32.5 cm.

Height: 1.8 inches, 4.5 cm

Weight: 45oz.