Object Description
A rare early English silver flat top lidded tankard in sterling silver with a scroll handle having a decorative thumb piece. Large size. To the front is a crisp hand engraved armorial capped by the crest of a lion holding a serpent and with a motto below – for the Leche family. There is an owl crest engraved to the lid. An excellent example of early hand beaten silver with lots of character.
Contains 1450 ml.
Weight 852 grams, 27.3 troy ounces.
Height 18 cm. Spread 21.3 cm.
London 1680.
Maker “IR” (see Jacksons page 130), probably John Ruslen (see David Mitchell’s “Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London”.
Motto. “Per Crucem Ad Coronam” – “By the Cross, To the Crown”
Signed/Inscribed: Underneath there is an old presentation inscription in old fashioned script “ The gift of Sir John Leche of Carvarden and Stretton and his wife Helen Morris, to their son Andrew Nicholas as an heirloom to his family for ever”. Sir John Leche (1889-1960), K.C.M.G. O.B.E., formally British Ambassador to Chile, address Stretton Hall, Malpas, Cheshire
JOHN RUSLEN
John Ruslen, London silversmith, apprenticed to Thomas George 1656, free 1664. Livery 1682. Court 1693. Warden 1702, 1707-8. Prime warden 1722. 1st mark as largeworker, pre Britannia period, c1697