| INDEX | ALL SILVER |
| DESCRIPTION | Good quality antique English Georgian cast solid sterling silver tea-candlestick. Tea-candlesticks are a variation of the taperstick that was specifically used at the tea table, especially in the
evenings. Tea drinking was an important ceremony in Georgian England and could take place thrice each day. The purpose of these sticks was for the sweet aroma given off by the burning of fine English beeswax
rather than for lighting. You would have the usual large candlesticks for lighting. The hallmarks are struck within the bases so are beautifully preserved as is the gilding. The socket is deep to hold taperstick in place and has an internal diameter of 0.5" that could be a bit narrower towards the base of socket. There is a removable sconce fitted that I believe to be an ill-conceived later addition. Sconces were introduced to candlesticks after it was found that messy lighting wax was a bugger to clean off the new (1740s) more decorative forms but as the high quality beeswax did not drip and splutter and cause the mess of lesser quality general lighting wax there is no need for a sconce here. This sconce appears to made up of an old flange fitted with a later bucket and there is no trace of the gilding at all. Crests are usually to the base and sometimes mirrored on the sconce but here the crest is to the scone only. The pencil mark on the cotton bud in my last image is the depth of the stick's socket. Having a sconce only half as deep is nonsense. Finally, and I know not conclusively as the crest could have been added later, this tea-candlestick pre-dates hybrid tea roses by 100 years and is most likely a nod to the original use of this stick rather than an actual crest. |
| SILVERSMITH | J·H, mark would have been registered in the now lost largeworkers book of summer 1758 to summer 1773 and not yet traced. Illustrated as Grimwade 3706 and seen on a taperstick of London 1763. |
| DATE or HALLMARK | 1764 |
| ASSAY OFFICE | London |
| WEIGHT in GRAMS | total 148 |
| HEIGHT of STICK sans sconce | 5", 127mm |
| SILVER STANDARD | ·925 sterling silver |
| CONDITION | very good, no repairs, no engraving, no erasure, rocks on base a bit but as cast silver does not really bend without cracking due to the crystalline structure of the atoms this must have been considered acceptable by the maker. It was a difficult and expensive process to make this piece and a slight rock would have been considered acceptable considering the surfaces of furniture at the time. I will counter the argument that the Georgians could make perfectly flat surfaces with the fact that, just like today, most people had used/old/antique furniture in damp houses with variable temperature that was very far from perfectly flat. Simply align your candlestick with the warp in your table top and you are good to go. Traces of gilding present in the recesses of the mouldings and particularly evident within the base |
select any image to enlarge
| SOLD |
| Price £493 |
| item number m8627 |
| Available Silver Candlesticks |
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