A set of six George III sterling silver soup dishes, London 1777 by John Wakelin & William Taylor (reg. 25th Sep 1776)

each of shaped circular form with a gadrooned rim, dished centres. The edge later engraved with a crest of a stag trippant charged with a crescent, encircled within the Order of The Bath surmounted by a Viscount's coronet. Each engraved to the reverse with numbers and scratch weights; No 22 17 “ ~, No 26 17”1, No 29 17 “ ~, No 34 17 “ 3, No 39 17” 1. Each fully marked. (6)

Diameter – 25 cm / 9.8 inches

Weight – 2468 grams / 79.35 ozt

The crest is for Townsend

For John Robert Townshend, 1st Earl Sydney GCB PC (1805 – 1890), known as The Viscount Sydney between 1831 and 1874, made Order of the Bath 10 March 1863.

He likely inherited these dishes from either his great-grandfather The Honourable Thomas Townshend (1701 –1780), of Frognal House, Kent or his grandfather Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, PC (1733 – 1800) who was made Viscount in 1789 and elected to the privy council in 1767. A ‘Thomas Townsend esq’ is recorded in the Wakelin ledgers: Schrager, L., The Royal and Aristocratic Patronage of Wakelin and Tayler, 1776-92, (2006) The journal of the silver society, no 21, p.87-104.