Duke of Argyll – An interesting George III sterling silver twin handled entrée dish base, London 1770 by Thomas Heming (reg. 12th June 1745)

Of octagonal form with a gadrooned edge and twin C scroll and acanthus capped handles. The centre engraved with a contemporaneous quartered coat of arms between supporters above the motto Vic Ea Nostra Voco, all surmounted by a Duke’s coronet. Later engraved underneath “Richardson’s Coffee House, Covent Garden”. Scratch weight underneath 19 ‘ 15. Fully marked to the side.

Length – 28.8 cm / 11.6 inches

Weight – 555 grams / 17.84 ozt

The arms are for Campbell quartering Lorne, as borne by the Duke’s of Argyll

for Field Marshal John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll (1723 – 1806), styled Marquess of Lorne from 1761 to 1770. son of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll (c.1693-1770) and Mary Drummond Bellenden (1685-1736) daughter of John Bellenden, 2nd Lord Bellenden of Broughton (d.1707).

Campbell stood down from the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Dover when, on the formation of the Chatham Ministry, he was created Baron Sundridge in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in November 1766. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Scotland in 1767, succeeded his father as 5th Duke of Argyll in November 1770 and was promoted to full general on 24 March 1778. He went on to be colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Footguards in May 1782 and, having been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Argyllshire on 6 May 1794, was promoted to field marshal on 30 July 1796.

Charles Richardson (1760-1827) of Combe, Oxfordshire took over the elegant premises at No. 1 Piazza, Covent Garden as a coffee house and hotel in 1796, where he had been a proprietor of a neighbouring coffee house since 1793. A trade card printed by Henry Mutlow for Richardson’s coffee house is in the British Museum (Heal,I.33).

A pen, ink, and watercolour of Richardson’s Coffee house of 1811 by Joseph Wigley was sold Bonham’s New Bond Street, 6 Feb 2007, lot 37.

A famous white marble letter box formed as a lion’s head was situated at Button's Coffee House in Russell Street by Joseph Addison in 1713, and was transported to the Shakespeare Tavern, Covent Garden and subsequently to the Bedford Coffee House. It was eventually bought at a sale in 1804 of the proprietor James Campbell's effects by Charles Richardson for 17£ 10S, (Charles Richardson, Notices and Extracts relating to the Lion's Head, 1828, pp. 31, 35, 40–1.), who transferred it to his own coffee room in No. 43 King Street. James, later being owned by the Duke of Bedford and installed at Woburn Abbey from the sale of Richardson’s library 23^rd June 1837 by his son Charles Richardson (1783-1853). James Campbell took over the lease in 1785 but may have taken over management from 1769.

This entrée dish base poses an interesting scenario, that it was part of a set commissioned by the 5^th Duke of Arygll from Heming upon attaining the Dukedom in 1770, which was subsequently used in The Shakespeare, under the proprietor James Campbell, given the surname a potential kinsman of the Duke and thus a patron, which in 1804 was potentially sold with the Campbell effects alongside the marble lion letter box where also bought by Charles Richardson for his coffee house, thankfully engraved to the reverse.

A James Campbell was a stationer and bookbinder, Strand 1774L; 110, Strand 1775; 103, Strand 1779L-1785P. D. 2 Apr. 1784. Bookbinder to King 1767-70. Westminster Poll 1774: Pe., Cl. Howe; Ramsden; Musgrave. It is unclear is this is the same James Campbell as proprietor of The Shakespeare.

For a set of four entrée dishes of this form replete with rising octagonal covers, of 1768 by Heming, sold Christie’s New York, 19 Oct 2004, lot 1029 ($10,158 incl. prem)

Another set of four with covers of 1773 by Heming (Baron King of Ockham service)was sold Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh, 6 June 2018, lot 504 (£5000 incl. prem)