| INDEX | ALL SILVER |
| DESCRIPTION | Good and original pair of antique English Georgian solid sterling silver salvers with their original engraved armorial within mantling and motto MEA GLORIA FIDES. This crest and motto combination was used by the Watson family of Yorkshire. The engraving has softened a little but is actually excellent for its age and position. Typical, slightly clunky/crude solder joints of the period, function over beauty. Also a typical silver mix of the period with gas bubbles from the ingot evident verso. See the streaks of surface disruption on the backs. This is where the hole left by a gas bubble has been hammered and stretched out with the metal to form the salver from the ingot. There is a particularly good one image 6, left salver back, about three o'clock. These are features, not faults and just a few years later the technology of silver mixing improved and these features were only rarely seen again. That same salver back also still displays the slightly darker colour of the original surface and the broad, lighter band caused by the assayer's scrape over 250 years ago. Nice features of originality that I enjoy but are so often lost when silver is loved in the wrong way (too much polishing). Having just said that, I did need to sympathetically clean and polish these to do this description and condition report. They were black with tarnish and grime. Underneath could have been pits and repairs that could not be seen but I got lucky this time. The tarnish had sealed and protected the surface to leave us these two wonderful survivors. |
| SILVERSMITH | John Carter II, a specialist maker of salvers and candlesticks |
| DATE or HALLMARK | 1768 |
| ASSAY OFFICE | London |
| WEIGHT in GRAMS | 551 |
| maximum WIDTH | 7", 181mm |
| SILVER STANDARD | ·925 sterling silver |
| CONDITION | excellent, original condition, thick and heavy metal not thinned by polishing, beautifully struck and well preserved hallmarks, couple of tiny dings that should be forgiven and ignored |
select any image to enlarge
| SOLD |
| Price £659 |
| item number m8506 |
| Available Silver Salvers |
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