The Antique Silver Spoon Collectors' Magazine
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The Antique Silver Spoon Collectors’ Magazine …The Finial… ISSN 1742-156X Volume 28/04 Where Sold £8.50 March/April 2018 ‘The Silver Spoon Club’ OF GREAT BRITAIN ___________________________________________________________________________ 5 Cecil Court, Covent Garden, London. WC2N 4EZ V.A.T. No. 658 1470 21 Tel: 020 7240 1766 www.bexfield.co.uk/thefinial [email protected] Hon. President: Anthony Dove F.S.A. Editor: Daniel Bexfield Volume 28/04 Photography: Charles Bexfield March/April 2018 CONTENTS Introduction 3 Edinburgh 1797 duty marks by Anthony Dove 3 The mystery surrounding the Freedom of Pierre Harache by David McKinley 4 Connections by Paul Dudley 6 Obituary – Bill Brown (1928 – 2018) by Anthony Dove 7 A captain’s spoon with a pedigree by Robert Peveraro 8 Feedback 11 Advertisement – Lyon & Turnbull Auctioneers 12 Results for the Club Postal Auction – 1st March 2018 13 Advertisement – Sworders Auctioneers 14 The Club Postal Auction 15 The next postal auction 39 Postal auction information 39 -o-o-o-o-o-o- COVER A Rare Silver Acorn-Knop Spoon Circa 1375 - 1425 See: The Postal Auction, page 31, Lot 155 -o-o-o-o-o-o- Yearly Subscription to The Finial UK - £39.00; Europe - £43.00; N. America - £47.00; Australia - £49.00 In PDF format by email - £30.00 (with hardcopy £15.00) -o-o-o-o-o-o- The Finial is the illustrated journal of The Silver Spoon Club of Great Britain Published by Daniel Bexfield 5 Cecil Court, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 4EZ. Tel: 020 7240 1766 Email: [email protected] All views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Finial. .2. Introduction In the previous issue I mentioned that some of Bill Brown’s collection was coming up for auction, however a couple of days later I heard the very sad news that Bill had just passed away. He will be much missed by all who knew him. Our Honorary President Anthony Dove has written a lovely obituary for him, on page 7. My deepest sympathies go his family. This issue’s postal auction is looking very interesting. Amongst our customary selection of interesting spoons, we have a few early continental spoons from the 16th and 17th centuries. I am looking forward to seeing how much interest they receive in comparison to early British spoons. This we will of course find out in the next issue. Wishing you all well, Daniel. -o-o-o-o-o-o- Edinburgh 1797 Duty Marks By Anthony Dove F.S.A. The title of this paper should be ‘the one that got away’. In my previous research into the 1797 duty increase marks I sadly, (mea culpa) overlooked the possible ramifications in the hallmarking at Edinburgh. This assay office started its year in mid-September. The date letter ‘Q’ started in September 1796 and was used until September 1797. Fig, 1 The increase in duty took place from 5th July 1797. Edinburgh’s records show that while being requested by London to strike the duty head twice, “the incorporation refuses to do so” [sic]. They preferred to wait until they had received the triple cusped duty punch in common with the other assay offices, some time later in the month. Fig. 2 The marks in Figure 1 (date letter ‘Q’) show the plain oval cusp used from mid -September 1796 until July 1797 (exact date unknown at present). Figure 2 with the same date letter has the triple cusped duty mark used from July 1797 until mid-September. Figure 3 has the date letter ‘R’, which would have been used from September 1797 onwards. Fig. 3 I am very grateful to Matthew Peppitt for drawing my attention to these marks. -o-o-o-o-o-o- .3. The Mystery Surrounding The Freedom Of Pierre Harache By David McKinley In 1462 the Wardens of the Goldsmiths’ Company of London were granted ‘Letters Patent’ which, among other things, gave them the right to enact byelaws and ordinances by which they could enforce their regulation of the craft and license foreign craftsmen working in gold and silver. These licensed foreign craftsmen were known as ‘Allowes’ but in 1574, by Act of Common Council, these Allowes were denied freedom of the Company and in 1668, following a petition from the native silversmiths, the Company forbade its own freemen to employ them. The newly arrived Huguenot craftsmen were therefore obliged to set up their own workshops and to do so outside the City limits since as non-freemen they also were denied freedom of the city. In his The London Tradesman of 1747 Robert Campbell estimated that it could cost anything from £20 to £100 to set up a snuffbox maker’s workshop so that to establish a large worker’s workshop would have been prohibitive. That Pierre Harache, the first foreigner to gain freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company did, it is believed, set up such a workshop is something of a mystery since he is known to have entered the country with very limited funds. It is now well known that in July 1682 Pierre Harache was afforded the privilege of freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company of London, followed immediately by freedom of the city. However, since this fact was established both it and the entire record of Harache’s arrival in this country, have been shrouded in mystery. As, since the implementation of the Order in Council in 1574, and even before this date, foreigners working in precious metals had been denied freedom of the Company what circumstance obtained in the case of Pierre Harache that broke down this prejudice? Why, according to a letter from the Treasury to his Majesty’s customs officials, was he given freedom from customs duty when he arrived here in October 1681 and how was he able to set up a workshop immediately since, according to that customs duty exemption, he came into the country with no more than £60 worth of old and new plate (238 ounces)1 which, presumably, he had smuggled out of France? The answer to why Harache was given exemption from customs duty is now known although why the Treasury wrote to the Customs officials specifically about him is a little puzzling. In July 1681 King Charles II had issued an Order in Council part of which reads: ‘….the Lords Com'mrs of His Matys Treasury are to give orders to the Commrs of His Matys Customes to suffer the said Protestants to passe free with their goods and household stuffe, whether of a greater or a smaller value, together with their tooles and instruments belonging to their craffts or trades, and generally all what belongs to them that may be imported according to the Lawes now in force, without exacting any thing from them…’2. The matter of his freedom of both the Company and the city and of his ability to set up a workshop with such restricted funds is more difficult to explain. There are two possible explanations and these are as follows: First, the workshop may have been in existence before his arrival and this would account for the fact that the earliest item of plate attributed to Peter Harache is hallmarked with the date letter for 16823. Given the attitude of the local silversmiths it is unlikely that one of them would have provided this facility and this means that the workshop must have been set up by a fellow Huguenot. The most likely candidate is the Peter Harache whose address is recorded as Little Newport Street, who traded with Hoare’s Bank and about whom nothing more is known at present. Secondly it is possible that Harache had Government sponsorship. The theory has been advanced that his admittance to the Goldsmiths’ Company and the finance needed to set up a largeworker’s .4. workshop were under the auspices of the Government and that this is because he had acted as a Government agent while in France. This possibility also gives the explanation for his arrest in Paris by the French authorities in 16684. There is an interesting circumstance that could lend some weight to this theory and this is to be found in the Treasury Books: At the time of Harache’s arrival in England the Treasury Secretary was one Henry Guy and his name appears many times in the records. On some of these occasions he is recorded as having been paid, under the Royal Sign Manual, sums of money ranging from £100 to £500 ‘for the secret service’. For instance in Disposition Book 11, page 90 under the date Sept 5 the following is recorded: ‘Henry Guy to the Auditor of the Receipt to issue as follows out of such Excise money as is now in the Exchequer, viz: To me [Guy] for secret service ſ 200’. And under the following references: Kings warrant book VIII p233, Money book III p140, order book XXXVIII p249 is the entry: ‘500 ſ to Henry Guy for secret service, without account to be issued ut supra Money warrant dated Sept 15 hereon. Money order dated Sept 17 hereon’. Of course no names are mentioned in the Treasury books but it has to be assumed that some of this money was paid to Government agents and if Harache was indeed one of these he could certainly have received enough money to set up his workshop. Could Peter Harache have enjoyed the patronage of the King himself? The order for him to be admitted to the freedom of the Goldsmiths’ Company came from the Court of Aldermen of the city and it is unlikely that they were acting on their own account.