A rare set of four George III Irish antique sterling silver candlesticks, Dublin circa 1770 by Richard Williams  Each with stepped square form bases with gadrooned edge below a shell and spiral fluted plateau. The columns with openwork Corinthian capitals and removable shaped square sconces with gadrooned edges. The bases filled. Each marked to the base with maker’s mark, town mark and standard mark only. Each candlestick also numbered and with scratch weight as follows; 1, 26:10, 2. 26:14. 3, 26:6 and 4, 26:7. The sconces also numbered 1-4 to the underside. (4) Height – 36.7 cm / 14.5 inches A curious point about these candlesticks is to be found on sconces 2 and 4, in the interior of sconce 2 can be found the Dublin town mark and date letter for 1714, while on the exterior of the base of sconce 4 is a section of foliate engraving. It would appear that a George I Dublin made waiter or salver was repurposed some 60 years after manufacture in order to produce these candlesticks. While the melting of older silver wares in order to produce new designs was common practice, a palimpsest such as this is a most uncommon feature. The refashioning of older plate in order to make these larger and heavier neoclassical designs is referenced by Wilfred Cripps in Old English Plate (1878), where after the melting’s of 1697 “scarcely less must have been melted down a century afterwards to furnish the mere metal required for the immense dinner equipages which altered the fashions of the day then rendered indispensable. No new supply of silver was available, such as that which once poured in from Spanish America; whence then came the tons of silver which were fashioned into dinner services with their various appendages by the London silversmiths, from Lamerie to Rundell and Bridge.” (page 276) Richard Williams, was warden of the Dublin assay office in 1766-7 and master in 1768-9. It is not uncommon to find Irish silver lacking the date letter, particularly in the second half of the 18th century. A pair of candlesticks of this exact from were sold Christies, King Street, 10th June 2010, Lot 343, £5000 premium inclusive.