Naval interest – A pair of George III sterling silver gilt ice cream spades or servers, London 1790 by George Smith and William Fearn

Naval interest – A pair of George III sterling silver gilt ice cream spades or servers, London 1790 by George Smith and William Fearn

Old English Double Thread pattern, single struck. Each engraved to the terminal with a contemporaneous crest of issuing from a naval coronet an arm in armour embowed holding a lance. Each fully marked. (2)

Length – 20.8 cm / 8.2 inches

Weight – 111 grams / 3.57 ozt

The crest is for Thompson

For Sir Thomas Boulden Thompson, 1st Baronet, GCB (1766 – 1828)

an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Vice-Admiral. He was one of Horatio Nelson's Band of Brothers at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and Comptroller of the Navy from 1806 to 1816.

He was promoted to post-captain on 22 November 1790, the time these ice cream servers were made, remaining on land until late 1796 when he secured command of the fourth rate HMS Leander.

A silver salver of 1798 by William Bennett presented to Thompson is in the Royal Museum Greenwich (PLT0179)