A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT SIDEBOARD DISH
Lot 145 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION 

A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT SIDEBOARD DISH

MARK OF WILLIAM PITTS II, LONDON, 1809

Closed19 May 2010

Price Realised

USD 80,500

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A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT SIDEBOARD DISH
MARK OF WILLIAM PITTS II, LONDON, 1809
Circular, cast and chased with classical figures surrounding Diana and applied with a border of fish, the outer border chased with satyrs' masks and recumbent figures and with ovolo border, marked on reverse
24¼ in. (61.5 cm.) diameter; 235 oz. 10 dwt. (7,338 gr.)

Specialist note

William Pitts made two sideboard dishes of this model for the Prince Regent, supplied by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. Rundell's account of 1812 describes one of the dishes as "A Richly chased sideboard dish, to match His Royal Highnesses, and with devices of the Feast of the Gods, from a design of Michael Angelo, with chased mosaic border." (E. A. Jones, The Gold and Silver of Windsor Castle, 1911, p. 114)

The central relief is actually based on a bronze plaque attributed to Guglielmo della Porta (Anthony Radcliffe, Carlton House: The Past Glories of George IV's Palace, 1991, p. 119), which Rundell's designers would have seen as an engraving in the Benedictine classicist Bernard de Montfaucon's L'Antiquité expliquée, first published in 1719.
Another Pitts sideboard dish of this model, also 1809, sold from The C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection, 19 October 2004, lot 241.