Description:
Silver dish with hammered repousse designs and with two rounded tab-like handles decorated a a geometric design, which is marked "WH" with an star above and pellet in an annulet below on the base, and the date letter "B" in a shield for 1657-1658, and the London hallmarks - lion passant and leopard's head crowned on the base, and a lion passant on each of the two handles. The initials "RP *-*SH" are engraved on the outside rim. "Jackson's Silver & Gold Marks" notes that this "WH" touchmark was found on "Four plain patens: St. Magnus, London Bridge" dated 1653-1654, a porringer-shaped cup dated 1654-1655, and four alms dishes from 1655-1656. The mark may belong to William Hough who is the only contemporary (earliest mention 1646- latest mention 1655) in Jackson's, and listed in Heal as working on Lombard St. from 1641-1655(?). This dish is discussed in "New England Begins:" "Small shallow dishes with shell-like handles such as this example, formed of comparatively thin hammered sheets of silver, were made from the 1630s to the 1690s. On occasion they served as alms dishes in English parish churches; one dating from 1636-1637 has long been used as a paten in the Welsh church of Saint Tuden at Llandudwen. An example of similar design and with the same form of handle (Yale University Art Gallery) bears the mark "IM"....The objects listed in probate inventories provide a variety of names for this form, and also suggest its use. A number of holdings included saucers; others included scalloped dishes of undertermined form. Most convincing are frequent references to sugar dishes, the most revealing of which is the 'smale sugar dish with 2 scalloped ears wrought' in the inventory of Thomas Willet." The lightness of the piece is consistent with the scarcity and expense of silver at this time in England. This form has been called a "Commonwealth sweetmeat dish" by several experts; it is almost certainly not a paten. Beth Wees also notes that similar scalloped circular dishes (without tabs) are sometimes referred to as dessert, epergne, or strawberry dishes, and by the late 17th century, possibly used for salads, which were becoming increasingly popular.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+75.186 |
