A rare George II silver mustard pot, London circa 1750 by Elizabeth Godfrey (reg. 29^th June 1741)

Of barrel form with a C scroll handle, the hinged disc lid raised by a plain disc thumbpiece, the sides with engraved lines to resemble staves and reeded band to resemble coopering. The lid later engraved with a crest of a dexter hand couped above the wrist and erect, grasping a crescent, below a Baron’s coronet. Maker’s mark only underneath.

Height – 7.6 cm / 3.05 inches

Weight – 166 grams / 5.34 ozt

The crest is for Cathcart

For Lieutenant-General Charles Schaw Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart, KT (1721 – 1776), son of Charles Cathcart, 8th Lord Cathcart (1686 – 1740), In 1763 he was created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle. In August 1768 he arrived as the ambassador at St Petersburg and was he was well received by Catherine the Great. He served, poorly, at the Russian court until 1772.^[3] On his return to Britain he was elected Rector of Glasgow University in 1773.

His son William Schaw Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart KT, PC, PC (Ire) (1755 – 1843), was raised the peerage of the United Kingdom as Viscount Cathcart of Cathcart and Baron Greenock of Greenock in 1807, becoming Earl in 1814.

Mustard sauce had long been a stable of British cuisine, where by the late 17th century dry mustard was dispensed from silver casters with a blind cover, often engraved to imitate piercing. The innovation of a finely ground mustard flour in the 1720s, a virtual monopoly for which was held by a Mrs. Clements of Durham, coincided with the emergence of the mustard pot with side handle and hinged lid that persisted over the centuries.

The two earliest recorded surviving English silver mustard pots; one of a pair, by Jacob Margas of 1724, part of Horatio,1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton's ambassadorial plate for his embassy to Paris in 1724. Listed in the Jewel House Records as 'Two Cruett Frames , 2 mustard barrils & 2 spoons 109 [oz.] 10 [dwt] 0 [gr], Jewel House Delivery Book, PRO Mss. LC9/44, f. 330, one sold by a descendent at Christie’s on 13 May 1953, lot 137, see H. G. Bernard, Country Life, 'Five Centuries of Mustard Pots, vol. 128, 1960, p. 338. The 2nd Baron Walpole appears to have commissioned a further mustard pot in 1757 to match the 1724 examples, sold Christie’s London, 15 July 2020, lot 217 (£8125 incl. prem). Another possibly for the paucity of mustard pots from the 1720’s, 30’s, and 40’s, aside from the use of blind casters for dry mustard powder, would be the use of condiment urns. The Leinster service of 1745-56 is the most complete mid-18th century service surviving today but also the detail to which it was recorded at the time. This lists in the Wickes ledger:

'to 2 suger [sic] spoons 2 pepper 2 musterd [sic] spoons To 24 salt glasses and 12 musterd [sic] and pepper glasses'.

This passage shows that the service used condiment urns and cruet frames for mustard as opposed to handled mustard pots.

Another early mustard pot of 1724, attributed to Paul de Lamerie, was published in E. A. Jones, 'More Old Plate in the Collection of the Most Hon. the Marquess of Sligo', The Connoisseur, vols 65-67, p. 158, fig iv.

Elizabeth Godfrey also known as Eliza Godfrey, she is regarded as the most prominent woman goldsmith from the 18th century. Born into a silversmithing family and widowed twice in her lifetime she went on to gain Royal Patronage. Born Elizabeth Pantin, to Simon Panin a notable Huguenot silversmith, she is believed to have learned of the trade in her father’s workshops, which were run by her mother Mary Pantin in 1733 following the death of her brother Simon II. She married Abraham Buteux on the 11^th Feb 1720, who upon his presumed death she registered her first mark as Elizabeth Buteux on the 15^th Nov 1731. She carried on this business until her marriage to her journey man Benjamin Godfrey on the 3rd October 1732. Her mark as Elizabeth Buteux is rarely encountered having been used little over a year. Her mark as Elizabeth Godfrey was registered on 29^th June 1741, upon the death of Benjamin Godfrey. Her last recorded activity is in 1758 which may denote retirement or death. The quality of work bearing her marks attests to the status of her patrons, most notably H.R.H the Duke of Cumberland as stated on her trade card. Godfrey’s best works reflect the height of rococo design which swept through the British Isles in the 1730s and 40s.