London 1844 by Robert Garrard II (reg. 16th April 1818)
A rare and unusual pair of Victorian sterling silver bowls or sauce tureens

Each of rounded elongated octagonal form upon a spreading elongated octagonal foot, each side with a cast and applied model of drake, with armoured scaly back. Each fully marked underneath. (2)
Length – 15.5 cm / 6.1 inches
Weight – 948 grams / 30.48 ozt

A set of four salts of 1844 by Garrard with the same from of drake (dragon), in silver gilt are known, and presumably were from the same service. The unusual inclusion of the mythical beast on these item most probably relates to the heraldry of the family that commissioned them.

Edmund Cotterill, was head of Garrard’s design department from about 1831 until his death in 1860. Many sculptural pieces were designed by him such as a monumental tankard parcel gilt tankard of 1844 with Saint George and Dragon finial were a Royal commission for the Ascot Trophy in 1844. See Charlotte Gere and John Culme, Garrard The Crown Jewellers for 150 years, 1993, p. 16 where another of 1846 is illustrated with a detail of its cover. A version was also shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Illustrated London News stated “Cotterill deservedly stands at the head of the class of artists who model for silversmiths, and his productions, annually exhibited at Messrs. Garrard, have earned for that house a celebrity which no other can equal” ( Vol. I, 1842, p.73). An 1845 example of these tankards signed for Cotterill was sold Sotheby’s New York, 4 April 2023, lot 63 ($38,100 incl. prem). It is quite possible that these bowls or sauce tureens, and accompanying salts may have been modelled by Cotterill.