Object Description
A fine pair of antique silver serving dishes and covers on warming bases. Large size, excellent quality and good gauge silver. Elegant plain styling, with a broad band of ribbing and gadroon borders, and topped with a magnificent lion mounted handle. The warming bases are typical of the period and have discreet wooden pad feet and carrying handles. The covers both have a large coat of arms hand engraved to the front and an arm crest topped by a crown to the reverse side, the plates also have the matching crest.
Silver weight 6,124 grams, 196 troy ounces.
Total height 24cm. Silver dome on serving plate height 19cm. Diameter – dome 28cm, dish 31cm.
Plates – sterling silver London 1774 by Thomas Heming.
Domes – sterling silver London 1813/5 by Samuel Hennell.
Old Sheffield plate warming stands circa 1774, unmarked.
Ideal to use on the table or sideboard to keep hot food warm, these dishes are very flexible in use and perfect for a formal buffet. The covered dishes can be used without the warmers. The plates can be used on their own to serve food and are lovely large size for sandwiches and other finger food.
Marks. The plates are stamped with a full set of matching silver hallmarks for London 1774, maker Thomas Heming. The domes are part marked for London 1813 and 1815, maker Samuel Hennell, handles part marked.
The Hennell Family (worked from 1728). David Hennell I was apprenticed to Edward Wood 6 September 1728. Married 1 March 1736 to Hannah Broomhead. First mark entered as largeworker, 23 June 1736. Address: King’s Head Court, Gutter Lane. The Hennell’s had fifteen children of which only five reached maturity. David retired from business in 1773 and died 1785.
Robert Hennell I, fifth child of David Hennell I, apprenticed to his father in 1756, free 1763. 1st mark in partnership with David I 1763. 2nd similar. 3rd mark alone as smallworker 1772. 4th mark as saltmaker 1773. 5th mark in partnership with son David II as 3rd partner 1802 .
Robert Hennell II, son of John Hennell, elder brother of Robert Hennell I. Apprenticed to his uncle Robert Hennell I 1778, free 1785. Also apprenticed to John Houle as engraver. 1st mark entered as plateworker with Henry Nutting 1808. 2nd,3rd and 4th marks mark alone 1809,1820 and 1826. Retired 1833.
Samuel Hennell, son of Robert Hennell I, free by patrimony 1800. 1st mark entered as third partner to his father and brother in 1802. 2nd mark with Robert Hennell only 1802. 3rd mark alone 1811. 4th mark in partnership with John Terry 1814, terminated 1816.
David Hennell II, apprenticed to his father Robert Hennell I 1782, free 1789. Livery 1791. 1st mark in partnership with his father 1795. Second mark, with brother Samuel added to the partnership 1802. Resigned from Livery 1821.
THOMAS HEMING
Thomas Heming was apprenticed to Edmund Bodington on March 7, 1738, and turned over on the same day to the Huguenot goldsmith Peter Archambo. In 1745 Thomas Heming entered his first mark. Heming rose to prominence in 1760 with his appointment as Principal Goldsmith to King George III, in which capacity he was responsible for supplying regalia and plate required for the coronation. Heming held this appointment until 1782, when he was ousted after an investigation into his apparently excessive charges. Grimwade (1976, p. 543) comments that “some of his earlier surviving pieces in the Royal collection show a French delicacy of taste and refinement of execution which is unquestionably inherited from his master Archambo.”
It was Lord Bute, one of Heming’s most important patrons, who encouraged this significant new appointment. Heming was the first working goldsmith to hold this post since the early seventeenth century and the majority of pieces were made in his own workshop. The superb quality and refined delicacy of many of the items reflect the influence of Peter Archambo.