A pair of George III sterling silver sauce tureens, London 1794 by Robert Sharp

Each of oval form upon a pedestal base with reeded edge and rectangular foot. Twin D section handles leading to a reeded rim. The pull off domed lid of conforming shape surmounted by a reeded loop handle. The bodies engraved with an impaled coat of arms in a shield shape cartouche, the lids engraved with a crest of a bugle-horn, garnished and stringed. One base and lid with two registration dots, the other with four. Each fully marked underneath, part-marked to the lids. (2)

Length – 25.3 cm / 9.9 inches

Weight – 1336 grams / 42.95 ozt

The arms are for Hornby impaling Backhouse

For John Hornby (1763-1841) who married on the 5^th Feb 1794 Alice Backhouse (1763 -1827), daughter of Daniel Backhouse, born in Blackburn.

John was a cotton spinner where during the 1820s the family business, a partnership with John Birley, expanded with the construction of a cotton spinning mill out of the centre of Blackburn, in the Brookhouse area on the River Blakewater. The original water mill was phased out, with power looms introduced in 1830, and a steam engine in 1841. Their son William Henry Hornby (1805–1884) became the first Mayor of Blackburn in Lancashire and national chairman of the Conservative Party.