Harlaxton - A George II sterling silver meat dish, London 1752 by Edward Wakelin (reg. 17th Nov 1747)

Of shaped oval form with a broad edge and gadrooned rim. The edge engraved with a late contemporaneous crest of a demi-lion rampant. The reverse engraved “The legacy of William Preston esquire to his niece Olivia Gregory Williams”. Fully marked to the reverse and with scratch weight 57=0.

Length – 46.3 cm / 18.25 inches

Weight – 1639 grams / 52.7 ozt

Olivia Preston (1757-1834) of Flasby Hall, Yorkshire, was the daughter of John Preston (1719-1758) and his second wife Elizabeth Wilberfoss, her uncle being William Preston (1723-1791) of Moreby Park. She married on the 24^th July 1783 William Gregory Williams (1742 - 1814). William Gregory had added the name Williams on inheriting his grandmother Susanna Williams (1671-1755) family estate and had Rempstone Hall built in 1792.

His brother George de Ligne Gregory (1740 - 1822) built Hungerton Hall as his residence in 1782. By 1758 George de Ligne Gregory had inherited the Manor of Harlaxton, Lincolnshire. When he died in 1822 his nephew, the son of William and Olivia, Gregory Williams (1786-1854), who had travelled in Europe attached to various Embassies and who collected works of art, inherited and became Gregory Gregory. Gregory commissioned Anthony Salvin to design the new house and in 1838 William Burn and his partner David Bryce were employed. His collection of statuary, furniture, tapestries, books, silver plate, and those few pictures which later were sold Christie, Manson & Woods (1878) Catalogue of the Gregory Heirlooms.

The 1866 plate inventory at Harlaxton, number 62 page 95, line 196 lists “2 oval meat dishes gadrooned edges” at 119 ozt 2dwt, then as line 197 “2 ditto smaller same pattern” at 114 ozt 10 dwt. This dish is likely from one of these lines. A meat dish of the same size and form at 61 oz. 10 dwt, engraved with the arms of Gregory, London 1784 by James Young was sold Christie’s London, 26 Nov 2014, lot 576 (£3000 incl. prem).