Object Description
A fine set of 4 antique silver sauce tureens with matching stands and lids. Of classical oval form, they have traditional gadroon borders and lions mask side handles. Hand engraved to the front of each there is a large coat of arms within a decorative cartouche, and to the reverse there is a lion crest above a coronet. The attractive cast silver lid finials have a daisy and foliate design.
Total weight 4,040 grams, 129 troy ounces.
Height 16 cm. Tureen top 17 x 12 cm.
London 1773.
Maker William Holmes & Nicholas Dumee.
Sterling silver.
Marks. All pieces – lid, tureen and base – are stamped with a full and matching set of English silver hallmarks.
WILLIAM HOLMES & NICHOLAS DUMEE
William Holmes, London silversmith, free of the Lorimers’ Company (no date as the records were destroyed in 1940) and apparently working by about 1762. Holmes recorded as working in partnership with David Whyte from 1768-90. His 1st documented mark as plateworker, in partnership with Nicholas Dumee was entered in 1773. 2nd mark alone 1776. 3rd mark 1792. JS Denwall was apprenticed to him in 1790 and his own son John Gwyn Holmes in 1780.
Nicholas Dumee, London silversmith, no record of apprenticeship or freedom. 1st mark with Francis Butty, unrecorded, soon after 1758. Bankrupt in 1773. 2nd mark in partnership with William Holmes as plateworkers 1773. 3rd mark alone 1776. Listed as Huguenot by Evans.