Royal: a pair of George III silver-gilt picnic vases on stands with burners, John Emes, London, 1804

Ernest Augustus, 1^st Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, from 1837 King of Hanover (1771-1851), a gift from his brothers and sisters, and by descent to

Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3^rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (1845-1923), sold to Glückselig in 1924 and subsequently purchased in 1924 by Lionel Alfred Crichton (Crichton Brothers), 22 Old Bond Street, London

Sir Philip Sassoon, The Marquess of Cholmondley and by descent until 2003

The Daily Telegraph, London, Tuesday 4th November 1924, p.10

H. Avray Tipping, 'The Silver Plate of the Duke of Cumberland. - II', Country Life, 8th November 1924, pp.702-703, fig.4

The Sphere, London, Saturday 6th December 1924, p.29

L.A. Crichton (Crichton Brothers), 22 Old Bond Street, November 1924

These highly unusual items (listed in Crichton’s 1924 catalogue as ‘picnic sets’) appear in the 1880 Hanover inventory as coffee pots and warmers with burners on stands belonging together with a sugar box, cream bowl and spoon, also marked for John Emes, 1804, as well as a pair of sugar tongs marked for Eley & Fearn, 1806. A note mentions that the elements of the `picnic set´ were sold to the Viennese dealer Glückselig in 1924 who in turn sold them to Crichton who exhibited them in his showroom that same year.

Another example of similarly engraved royal silver is an egg boiler belonging to George III. Part of a larger breakfast service, it was given to the King on his 66^th birthday by his five youngest daughters and bears their initials along with the King’s monogram. ¹

Lionel Alfred Crichton (né Lionel Alfred Solomon, 1865-1938) will be long remembered as the leading London antique silver dealer of his generation. But perhaps his greatest triumph came in 1923 when he purchased a large collection of 18th and early 19th century English plate from Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (1845-1923). The latter, a great grandson of George III, was the grandson of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851) who, by the Salic law of succession, became King of Hanover in 1837 and thereby inherited a vast collection of silver and jewels which would otherwise have passed to the new monarch of Great Britain, Queen Victoria.

It was reported in June 1923 that the Duke of Cumberland was negotiating with several groups of dealers, ‘each of them as quietly as possible, for even part of the collection would be regarded as a great prize.’² With the English part of the Hanover/Cumberland silver secured, Crichton opened his first selling exhibition of it on 20 November 1923, which, coincidentally, was just a week after Cumberland’s death.³ An early customer was the then Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor) who bought six salt cellars engraved with the Prince of Wales’s feathers, which had been made for George II when Prince of Wales.⁴ Two casters from the same service, included in this first Cumberland group (lot 6) were also in Crichton’s 1923 exhibition.⁵

A year later, in November 1924, Crichton repeated his success with a further selection of the Hanover/Cumberland plate.⁶ Among this group were the so-called picnic vases in this present lot, which at the time were described by a visitor to the exhibition at Crichton’s showroom, 22 Old Bond Street, as ‘a pair of curious and perhaps unique pieces constructed to keep coffee and milk hot, without fear of their boiling', on the water-jacket principle of many a modern cooking pot. What name was given to them when, as would appear from the engraving on them, they were given to Ernest Augustus by his brothers and sisters, does not appear, but Mr. Crichton, in his catalogue of the collection, calls them:

‘”A pair of picnic sets, each vessel comprising a deep oval tapering body with reeded wire borders and loose domed covers, on oval foot, inside of which is a jug for milk and coffee, the whole on oval plain stand with four legs and lamp. Maker John Emes 1804. Engraved Arms of the Duke of Cumberland, Royal Badge and Cyphers and Coronets of Edward, Adolphus Frederick, Augusta Sophia, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia and Amelia, brothers and sisters of the [1st] Duke of Cumberland [and Teviotdale].”’⁷

Notes.

1. Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 49122

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/49122/egg-boiler, accessed 30^th May 2022

2. The Times, London, Thursday, 21 June 1923, p. 13g

3. The Times, London, Tuesday, 20 November 1923, p. 11b

4. The Sketch, London, Wednesday, 5 December 1923, p. 465a

5. ‘The Cumberland Silver,’ The Times, London, Tuesday, 20 November 1923, p. 11b

6. The Daily Telegraph, London, Tuesday, 4 November 1924, p. 10g

7. H. Avray Tipping, ‘The Silver Plate of the Duke of Cumberland. - II,’ Country Life, London,8 November 1924, p. 702-703, fig. 4