George II Antique Silver Oil and Vinegar Set

Object Description

A good antique silver condiment set with broad shell feet and side carrying handle. The heavy silver frame has a handsome rococo cartouche with a hand engraved armorial. The cut crystal bottles have detachable silver tops which fit onto the side rings when the bottles are in use.

Weight of stand and silver tops 524 grams, 16.8 troy oz.
Total height 21.4cm. Stand width 20.3cm. Bottle height 18.3cm.
London 1750.
Maker Sam Wood.
Sterling silver.
18th century.

Marks. Stamped underneath the cruet stand with a full set of English silver hallmarks. The bottle tops are unmarked which is normal for the period.

Maker: Samuel Wood

Samuel Wood (c.1704-1794), apprenticed to Thomas Bamford 1721, free 1730. First mark entered as largeworker, 1733. Second mark circa 1738. Third mark 1739. Fourth mark entered 1754. Fifth mark 1756. Warden 1758-60, and Prime Warden 1763. Through his apprenticeship to Thomas Bamford, who had been bound to Charles Adam, Wood came of a continuous line of specialist caster-makers and in turn trained both Jabez Daniell and Robert Piercey (q.v.), both clearly established also in the same line of production. Wood’s cruets and individual casters, although produced in quantity are of a uniformly high standard and one of the most attractively designed smaller items of plate, without which no reasonably equipped table of the eighteenth century appears to have been complete.

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Object Literature

The earliest antique silver cruet frames were made from c.1700 onwards. The two bottle oil and vinegar frame was also produced occasionally although these are more popular on the continent. Later in the 18th century the number of bottles in a cruet increased to as many as 8 or 10 containing a variety of sauces of the period such as soy, ketchup, tarragon etc, so many that little sauce labels were needed to identify the contents.

Object Condition

All in very good condition. The bottles are matching, typical glass decoration of the period, and everything fits together very well. There is some wear to the hand engraved armorial.

Object Details