Jacobite interest – An early George III sterling silver tea caddy and sugar bowl suite, London 1760 by Christopher Makemeid (first reg. 29th Nov 1758)

Jacobite interest – An early George III sterling silver tea caddy and sugar bowl suite, London 1760 by Christopher Makemeid (first reg. 29^th Nov 1758)

Comprising a pair of tea caddies and a covered sugar bowl. Each of inverted baluster form upon cast and pierced open work feet formed as foliage and rocaille. The caddies with pull off domed lids with beaded edge each surmounted by a pyriform finial with punched stamp work decoration, all above a leaf calyx, the pull off sugar bowl lid surmounted the same. Each with embossed decoration to the bodies with foliage and trailing pellets, the lids similarly embossed. Each with an embossed asymmetrical C scroll cartouche, with rocaille, each engraved with a crest of a dexter hand holding a hand holding a heart, surmounted by an Earl’s coronet. Each fully marked underneath, each lid with maker’s mark CM (Grimwade 3504) and lion passant only to the bezel. (3)

Sugar bowl height – 16.6 cm / 6.5 inches

Sugar bowl diameter – 11 cm / 4.3 inches

Caddy height – 15.5 cm / 6.1 inches

Weight – 943 grams / 30.32 ozt

The crest is for Bruce, Cathcart, Cochran, Cochrane, Darling, Davidson, Douglas, Douglass, Drummond, Hamilton, Leak, Scott and Whytt.

Several of these have Earldom’s or subsidiary titles of the same surname but use a different crest. However, one that reflects the crest engraved on this set is Drummond.

For James Lundin of Lundin later Drummond, self styled 10th Earl of Perth (1707-1781)

son of Robert Drummond later Lundin of Lundin (d. 1716) and Anne Inglis (b.1684) daughter of Sir James Inglis of Cramond, 1st Bt (1660-1688), the grandson of John Drummond, 1st Viscount of Melfort later 1st Earl of Melfort (1650-1714).

The title Earl of Perth is a complex one in the middle of the 18^th century, following on from James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth (1648-1716) who was attainted in 1716. His third son Edward Drummond (1690-1760) was the sixth Jacobite-jurisdiction Duke of Perth, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the titular King James III 1709, took an active part in the 1745 rising and afterwards fled to France from the Isle of Uist, imprisoned in the Bastille 1739, General of Cavalry in the French service. On the 6^th February 1760 (the year of this set) following the death of Edward Drummond the titles Earl of Perth was inherited by James Lundin of Lundin later Drummond, self styled 10th Earl of Perth (1707-1781). In 1776 he took up residence at the Drummond estate of Stobhall in Perthshire, following the death of Jean Drummond, Duchess of Perth (1682-1773), Edward’s sister-in-law as the wife of his half-brother Hon James Drummond, styled Lord Drummond later titular 2nd Duke of Perth (1673-1720).

His son James Drummond, 1st Baron Perth (1744 - 1800) upon his father's death on 18 July 1781 succeeded to his father's claim to the earldom of Perth but did not use the title. In 1784, an Act was passed allowing the Crown to grant to the heirs-male the estates that had been forfeited in 1745, and on 8 March 1785 the Court of Session declared that he was the person entitled to the Drummond estates (including Drummond Castle), which he was duly granted. He submitted a claim to be Earl of Perth in 1792, but withdrew it in 1796, and on 26 October 1797 was created a Peer of Great Britain as Lord Perth, Baron Drummond of Stobhall in the County of Perth. Upon his death the title Baron Perth became extinct and the claim to be Earl of Perth line of the titular Dukes of Melfort, as the Dukedom of Melfort was attainted in 1695 but for whom it was restored on 28 June 1853, before being inherited by the Viscounts Strathallan on 28 February 1902.

Christopher Makemeid was apprenticed to John Swift on the 6^th April 1748, a noted large worker. He was free 5^th June 1755, his first registered mark as a small worker 29^th Nov 1758 at Clements Inn Passage, his second mark as a large worker 11 October 1771 at 115 Shoe Lane where he appears as a plate worker in the 1773 Parliamentary report, third mark registered 2 October 1773, dead soon thereafter. This mark CM, without a pellet would have been in the lost 1758-1773 Largeworkers Register. Heel noted a trade card for ‘Makemeid – Goldsmith, Golden Cup, Threadneedle Street’. This mark is found upon a gilt tea caddy of the exact same form and decoration of 1758, offered Christie’s New York, 14 April 2005, lot 232. It is also found on an exuberant Chinoiserie tea caddy of 1764, sold Sotheby’s New York, 18 Oct 2006, lot 19, then at Doyle, New York, 24 Oct 2012, lot 272 ($17,500 incl. premium), illustrated Literature: Clayton. M. (1971), The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, p. 408, fig. 624.