A graduated set of three mid-18^th century unmarked silver casters, possibly West Indian colonial, Antiguan circa 1730-40

Comprising a sugar caster and a pair of pepper casters, each of circular vase form upon a spreading circular foot with a moulded central section. The pull-off domed lids surmounted by a bell form finial, each with alternating pierced decoration of nought cross and foliate scrolls, interspersed with moulded sections. Each later engraved with a crest of on a chapeau, turned up erm., a sea-lion's head erased, gorged with a naval coronet, holding in the mouth a flagstaff in bend sinister, therefrom flowing a banner, having inscribed thereon ‘Marack’ in letters of gold, all surmounted by a Barons coronet. (3)

Tallest – 17.1 cm / 6.7 inches

Shorter – 14.1 cm / 5.5 inches

Weight – 926 grams / 29.77 ozt

The crest is for Lyons

For Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, GCB, GCMG, KCH (1790-1858)

Who was an eminent British Admiral of the Royal Navy, and diplomat, who ensured Britain's victory in the Crimean War, during which he was Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, by his contribution at the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) with both the Royal Navy and the British Army. He was created a Baron, of Christchurch, on 23 June 1856. There is a life-sized statue of him, by Matthew Noble, in St Paul's Cathedral, which remains there. The Edmund River and Lyons River in Australia are named after him. His son Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons (1817-1887) was Queen Victoria's favourite diplomat. In 1856 he was raised to the Peerage of United Kingdom as Baron Lyons.

son of Captain John Lyons (1760 – 1816) of Antigua

Captain John as a British owner of extensive sugar plantations, of 563 acres total, in Antigua, where he served as a politician and a Captain in the Royal Navy. He was sworn in as a member of the Council of Antigua in 1782. He married in 1784 Catherine Walrond (1763-1803), daughter of Main Swete Walrond (1725-1790) 5^th Marquis de Vallado, of St Phillips, Antiqua and his wife Sarah Lyons (1731-64) the daughter Joseph Lyons of Groton Hall, Antiqua. After the death of their second child, in 1803, John and his wife Catherine returned to England and settled at St Austin's, a 190-acre estate in the New Forest, Lymington, Hampshire.

son of John Lyons (1731-1775) of Antigua

John Lyons succeeded to the 563-acre Lyons Estate in Antigua on the death of his brother Joseph in 1748 and served as a member of the Council of Antigua from 1764 to 1775. (Langford Vere, Oliver. History of the Island of Antigua, Vol. 2. Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1894. pp. 214–217.) He married Jane Harman (c.1732-1792) the daughter of Col Samuel Harman of Antiqua (1696-1759) on the 1st February 1753, in Saint Philip, Antigua. They were the parents of at least five sons and four daughters. He died in January 1775, in Bath, Somerset, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 43, and was buried in Bath St Michael, Somerset, England, United Kingdom. The will of John Lyons late of the island of Antigua but now of Tetworth House Huntingdonshire proved 15 Feb 1775). In the will (made in 1760) he left his wife Jane the use of the plantation house in Antigua and bequeathed to her 'one negro woman Aurilla and her family (that is to say Mora, Flower, Catherine and Guy) and also one mulatta girl called Jenny daughter of Jonnto [?] with the present and future issue and Increase of the female slaves.' He left £2000 each to his son John and his daughters Amy and Dorothy Mary, and to any future children: the real estate went to his son Henry. In a codicil of 1772 he said his son Henry had died but that he himself had prospered and he therefore left £1000 each to his then living children.

son of Henry Lyons (1700-1745) of Antigua

Henry Lyons married about 1723 Amy, daughter of Samuel Parry of Antigua and niece of Symes Parry of Symes. A family relation going back to Capt. John Symes of Montserrat and Anitgua (b. 1680-d. 1687) who married Elizabeth Langton in Antigua and was a Member of Council of the Island of Antigua in 1678. John and Elizabeth had a son, John Symes of Montserrat (d.1709, um). His will leaves his Montserrat plantation to his nephew, Symes Parry, son of his sister Elizabeth (b. 1682) who had married Samuel Parry Snr. He also leaves an estate in England to his nephew and requiring him to take the surname of Symes to inherit.

son of Major Henry Lyons (1660-1714)

Member of the Council of Antigua in 1710, who married on the 24^th August 1690 Sarah Winthrop (1674-1714, born Blackwood, Monmouthshire, Wales) in St Philip’s Antiqua. She the daughter of Samual Winthrop of Groton Hall, Antigua (d.1691, born Groton Hall Antiqua) who had married a daughter of Philip Warner, Governor of Antiqua. Samuel was the son of Capt and Deputy-Governor Samuel, of Antigua Winthrop (1627-1674, died Antiqua). [see Evidences of the Winthrops of Groton, Robert Charles Winthrop Jnr (1897), pedigree C Winthrop of Antiqua, Lyon, P.28]

The Lyon’s family, so long of Antigua have in the direct line backwards from the owner of the 19^th century crest on these casters married into many of the great families of Antigua; Winthrop, Warner, Parry, Symes, Harman and Walrond. It is plausible that these casters were ordered for one of the mid-18^th century marriages that engendered the line leading to Admiral Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons where they presumably would have left Antigua in 1803 with Captain John Lyons.

The Silversmiths of Antigua

Despite its prosperity as an island no recorded silver is known to have survived from Antigua. However due to the slave rebellion of 1736, the names of four witnesses are known there from the trials, Charles Allen described as a Goldsmith, Patrick Wilson, John Predeux, and Isaac Libert, each described as a silversmith. (Barry Gaspar, D. (1985), Bondsmen and Rebels – A Study of Master-Salve Relations in Antiqua, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, P.48).

Charles Allen (1710-1763) is of note as he went on to work in Jamaica, firstly in partnership with Archibald Campbell around 1742, then on his own until his death in 1763. An important corpus of material has survived by Allen from his partnership and by himself, both as maker’s mark only and with Jamaican assay marks; two cups and covers, a set of four candlesticks, a milk jug, a sugar or slops bowl, a covered sugar bowl, a pair of waiters, another pair of waiters, a single waiter, a salt, two hash or basting spoons, five tablespoons, together with tentatively ascribed teaspoons, snuff spoon, punch ladle and a punch strainer. (also a mutilated cup and cover by Edward Farrell).

Elias Boudinot is another name associated with Antigua. He was born on the 3^rd Aug 1706 and died on the 4^th Jul 1770. He was apprenticed from 1721 to 1728 to Simeon Soumain in New York City. He worked from 1729 to 1737 as a silversmith in Antigua, West Indies where he then set up from circa 1738 to 1752 as a silversmith in Philadelphia. Surviving pieces from his time in Philadelphia are known for Philadelphian patron’s, but no silver has been ascribed to his time there.

A caster circular vase form of 15.5 cm and 251 grams marked only with the maker’s mark of Lewis Depont who first entered a mark in London as a large worker on the 20^th Sep 1736 at Wardour Street, Soho, later at Compton Street near St Anne’s where he was declared bankrupt in 1747. He then worked in Saint Domingo 1752-64, where this caster is believed to have been made, from the Robert Barker collection of Jamaican silver (National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, Number X.2021.26.9.1)

These casters have been individually XRF tested at Goldsmiths Hall:

Main caster

Silver - 924.25

Gold - 0.4

Lead - 2.37

Smaller caster one

Silver - 927.66

Gold - 0.48

Lead - 2.38

Smaller caster two

Silver - 927.98

Gold - 0.45

Lead - 2.18

Alongside two items bearing known Jamaican marks

Charles Allan maker’s mark only silver item

Silver - 915

Gold - 1.69

Lead - 2.21

Anthony Danvers assayed silver item

Silver – 909.37

Gold – 1.83

Lead – 2.63

The reduced proportion of silver compared to sterling standard and the increased amount of trace gold with a marginal increase in trace lead found in the Jamaican silver may be indicative of that island. Until more examples are tested and any maker’s mark Antiguan pieces could be identified, the chemical makeup of the casters appears to mirror that of London alloys.