Cape interest – A George III Scottish sterling silver mustard pot, Edinburgh 1774 by Patrick Robertson

Cape interest – A George III Scottish sterling silver mustard pot, Edinburgh 1774 by Patrick Robertson

Of cylindrical ‘drum’ form with moulded rims, the C scroll handle with moulded hinged leading to a disc lid raised by a notched thumbpiece. Cut with a side aperture. Engraved to the lid with a crest of a phoenix in flames below the motto Bon Fin. Fitted with a removable clear glass liner. Together with a later mustard spoon, Sheffield 1957 by Roberts and Belk, engraved with the same crest. Fully marked underneath, the lid unmarked. (2)

Length – 8.6 cm / 3.45 inches

Weight – 144 grams / 4.63 ozt

The crest and the motto are for Graham

Fairbairn’s lists this combination of crest and motto for Graham of Newlands, Cape Town.

Colonel John Graham (1778-1821) was born in Dundee, Scotland, the second son of Robert Graham, last laird of the demesne of Fintry and 12th representative of the Grahams of Fintry in Forfarshire

In the frontier region of South Africa, the town he founded in 1812, Grahamstown, became a military, administrative, judicial and educational centre. He married Johanna Catharina Cloete (1790-1843) a descendant of the very first permanent settler at the Cape, and among his grandsons two were knighted, one as Secretary of Law of the Cape Colony, the other Judge President of the Eastern Districts Court in Grahamstown.