A Charles II sterling silver covered twin handled porringer, London 1684 by Richard Marchant (free. 1671)

Of rounded circular form with a caulked rim all upon a short, moulded foot, the applied sand cast twin S scroll handles with stylised beast head terminals. The circular pull-off gently domed lid with a centrally raised terrace surmounted by a cast and textured acorn finial. The front engraved with a first quarter 18^th century quartered and impaled coat of arms within a Baroque scroll cartouche flanked by garlands of fruit. Engraved underneath with scratch weight 27=10. Fully marked to the right of handle and to the top of lid, maker’s mark RM in monogram, pellet below, in shaped shield.

Length – 22.5 cm / 8.8 inches

Weight – 802 grams / 25.78 ozt

The arms are for Samson of Nottinghamshire, impaling More or Juxon

This mark is given a probable attribution to Richard Marchant in Mitchell, D., Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: their lives and their marks, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017, p.462.

Richard Marchant was apprenticed to plateworker Robert Smythier for seven years from Midsummer 1663, becoming free by service on the 2^nd August 1671.

Provenance

F.H. Woodroofe in 1901;
Sir Ernest Cassel (1852-1921)

Exhibited

The Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1901, No. I.60 by F.H. Woodroofe;
Queen Charlotte's Loan Exhibition, Old Silver, Seaford House, London, 1929, No. 351, plate 29 (Lady Mountbatten, when silver gilt)