Pierre Platel. A set of three early George I Britannia Standard Graduated Casters made in London in 1715 by Pierre Platel.

The Casters are in graduated sizes and are all of a different height, the magnificent central caster is of a large size and would have been for sugar, the next size down for spice and peeper and the smallest for mustard, as it is fitted with the usual cover sleeve.  Each stands on a slightly domed spreading foot decorated.  The main bodies have a baluster form, with two plain mid-bands encircling the body.  The high domed covers are cast and each has a flared base and long sleeve, where it fits into the main body and terminates in a cast bell finial.  Each cover is pierced with vertical panels of geometric openwork, enclosed by reeded frames.  Each is fully marked in the base and with the maker’s mark and leopard’s head erased on the outside of the cover.  The main body of each is engraved with the same Armorial, surrounded by a floral and foliate spray cartouche.  The casters are of wonderful gauge and weight, as to be expected from Platel and the covers are cast.

 These arms are those of Drury quartering Lowe impaling Steere quartering Morewood.  These are for William Drury-Lowe (1753-1827) who married Anne Steer (1744-1818) in 1782.  William Drury-Lowe was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1795.  He was born William Drury and inherited significant property and Locko Park from his cousin Robert Lowe who died in 1785.  He was a prominent investor in the Derby Canal.

Locko Park is a privately owned 18th-century country house in between the villages of Stanley and Ockbrook in the borough of Erewash, near Spondon, Derbyshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building, and the park is Grade II listed in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. An image is shown in the stream.

The estate was acquired by William Gilbert from William Byrde in 1563. The oldest part of the house is the chapel of 1669. The main south facing block of the present house, built about 1725 out of locally sourced Keuper sandstone for the member of parliament, Robert Ferne, has three storeys and nine bays and a substantial Tuscan porch. The architect is believed to have been Francis Smith of Warwick. The current house was built on or close to the site of a hospital of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, which was in existence at least as far back as 1296. The order was dedicated to the care of lepers, and the name Locko derives from the old French word for rags, loques, in reference to the strips of lint that were applied to sores.^[7]

Pierre Platel, to whom Paul De Lamerie was apprenticed in 1703, was born in north eastern France.  A generation older than De Lamerie, and already trained as a goldsmith, he came to England in 1688 in the train of William III.  He must have arrived with some strong contacts, for he became free of the Goldsmiths’ Company by order of the Court of Aldermen in 1699, and set up shop in Pall Mall, where he attracted some of the wealthiest and most powerful figures of the court.   His masterpieces are the gold Ewer and Dish in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth and a chocolate pot and cup and cover in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, formerly in the Farrer Collection.  The striking similarity between these casters and many others marked by De Lamerie, may suggest that De Lamerie duplicated Platel’s molds and models.

Large Sugar Caster:

Height: 8.75 inches, Diameter at the widest point: 3.2 inches.

Pepper Caster:

Height: 6.75 inches, Diameter at the widest point: 2.45 inches.

Dry Mustard Caster:

Height: 6.45 inches & Diameter at the widest point: 2.5 inches.

TOTAL WEIGHT: 40oz, the set.