An unusual George IV sterling silver breakfast dish / plate warmer, London 1824 by Richard Sibley (this mark reg. 13th July 1812)

Of circular form with moulded edges, each side with opposable loop handles. The pull off fitted lid with a detachable loop handle. Engraved to the side with a contemporaneous crest of a stork, holding in her dexter claw a pellet, otherwise later engraved with three crests to the lid, base side and the removable centre plate: a lion's head erased, charged for distinction with a cross crosslet; a man from the middle shooting an arrow from a bow, charged for distinction with a cross crosslet; in front of a tower, a demi-swan, wings elevated, collared. The removable interior lid to the hot water well engraved underneath No 11, the underside of one handle engraved No 18. Fully marked to side of handle, part-marked to plate bezel and to each handle, the lid part-marked underneath finial.

Diameter – 20.6 cm / 8.1 inches

Weight – 1324 grams / 42.57 ozt

The three crests are those of Burdett, Coutts and Bartlett,

for William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett Burdett-Coutts M.P. (1851-1921), younger son of Ellis Bartlett of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The husband of Lady Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906)

Lady Angela Burdett-Coutts became one of the wealthiest women in England as heir to the vast fortune of Harriet Beauclerk, nee Mellon, Duchess of St. Albans (1777-1837) formerly the wife of Thomas Coutts (1735-1822) the founder of the Royal Bank Coutts & Co. In 1871, in recognition of her philanthropic work, Queen Victoria created her suo jure Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and Brookfield in the County of Middlesex, she was also the first woman to receive the Freedom of the City of London in 1872. Her lifelong companion and former governess Hannah Brown, to whom she was devoted, died in 1878. Lady Burdett-Coutts wrote to a friend that she was utterly crushed by the loss of "my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years". On the 12th of February when she was 67, she shocked polite society by marrying her 29-year-old secretary, the American-born William Lehman Ashmead Bartlett, who became MP for Westminster on 12 February 1881. Her new husband changed his surname to Burdett-Coutts. Because of her husband's American birth, the clause in her step-grandmother's (the 9th Duchess of St Albans) will forbidding her heir to marry a foreign national was invoked and Burdett-Coutts forfeited three-fifths of her income to her sister.

Presumably sold: S. Burdett-Coutts, Esq., removed from Earls Place, Mark Cross, Tunbridge Wells; Christie's, London, 9 March 1942

Other items bearing these three crests or related heraldry:

• Seven soup plates London 1836 by Mary and William Sibley, sold Christie’s Amsterdam 13 Dec 2012, lot 69 (€3,500 incl. premium)
• A pair of salts, London 1824 by John Bridge, liner 1815 by Paul Storr, sold Christie’s London, 18 Nov 2010, Lot 46 (£7,500 incl. premium)
• A tray, London 1810 by Benjamin and James Smith, overstruck with that of John Crouch, sold Christie’s London, 9 Nov 2004, lot 170 (£40,000 incl. premium)
• A pair of entrée dishes, London 1799 by Robert Sharp, sold unidentified Bonham’s Knightsbridge, 26 Sep 2018, lot 172 (£3,750 incl. premium)