Description:
Silver rococo bread basket with spiral ribs separating geometric and scrolled pierced patterns, stylized shells, and gadrooned rim and edges on the solid, shaped handle and foot, which is marked "I*L" in a rectangle once for either John Laughlin, Jr. (1745-1774) or John Locker (1758-1825) or John Lloyd (1768-1821) and with "41::10" scribbed on the base. The well is engraved with the coat of arms of William Newcome (1729-1800) when he was an Anglican Bishop of Dromore, Ireland. He was made Bishop in 1766; translated to Ossory in 1775; and at the time of his death in 1800 was the Primate of all Ireland. The crest is a Bishop's mitre. The arms of the See impale those of the Bishop: On the right, "argent semy of trefoils slipped [vert] a cross patty [gules] on chief [asure] a sun in splendour [or]" for the Bishopric of Dromore; and on the left, "argent a lion's head erased [sable] between three crescents [gules]" for Newcome Although these baskets were used to hold a variety of food, fruits, and flowers, they were almost invariably referred to as bread baskets. According to David Barquist, most of the bread baskets owned in America were imported from or purchased in England. Silver baskets of this size apparently were an English innovation without Continental precedent. Examples were made beginning in the the early 17th century, and by the middle of the 18th century, they were manufactured in large quantities by London workshops that specialized in their production; the design of this basket is based on London models made from the mid 1760s through the 1770s.; however, it may have been a custom order for the Bishop, thus explaining the lack of hallmarks. Son of silversmith, John Laughlin, John Laughlin, Jr. apprenticed with Joseph Nixon in 1761, was made freeman in 1768, and is last mentioned in 1773. This touchmark is similar to two touchmarks of the father and son listed in Charles J. Jackson, "English Goldsmiths and Their Marks." John Locker apprenticed to William Williamson in 1752, made freeman in 1759, and died in 1825; and John Lloyd apprenticed to Matthias Brown in 1754, made freeman in 1768, and died in 1821. In 2002, Christie's auctioned a similar cake basket described with the "mark of John Lloyd, John Laughlin, or John Locker, Dublin, 1773." This basket was originally attributed to John Burt Lyng (d. 1785) of New York City because the basket lacks hallmarks.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+58.180 |
