Object Description
An excellent antique sterling silver samovar of plain design and having a shaped folding handle with raffia finish. Uninscribed. The matching stand has a cut-work frieze and stands on large shell feet, it has a removable burner well with push on top. Weight 1589 grams, 51 troy ounces. Total height 30 cms (handle extended)/ 22.5 cms (to top of kettle finial). London 1729. Maker Benjamin Pyne.
Biography – Benjamin Pyne, apprenticed to George Bowers 1667, free 1676. The mark of a single letter P under a crown, found shortly after 1680, appears on the 1697 copperplate at the Goldsmith’s Hall, and which reappears after 1720, again unentered, can safely be attributed to him. His only authenticated marks are two entered as a largeworker, undated, probably entered in 1697 on commencement of register. He held the position of Subordinate Goldsmith to the King for the coronation of George I only. His son Benjamin was apprenticed to him 21 October 1708, free 8 May 1716 and was elected Assistant Assayer in 1720. By the end of the seventeenth century Pyne was obviously, from his surviving work, in the front rank of London goldsmiths and with Anthony Nelme shared the main responsibility of upholding native standards against Huguenot competition, although like Nelme it is more than probable that he employed (or bought up and remarked the work of) the latter to some extent. His connection with Hoare’s bank may well have continued for some considerable time and perhaps be responsible for the number of orders for municipal maces and regalia and church plate he received. However the end of his life was sad. On 17 January 1727, when he must have nearly been 75, he resigned from the Livery, probably due to ill health and bad eyesight, and petitioned with others for the place of Beadle to the Company, vacant by the death of John Bodington, and was elected the same day to the post.