Live Auction 1162Centuries of Style, Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes
A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS
Lot 460

A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS

MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1815

Closed27 November 2013

Price Realised

GBP 15,000

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A SET OF FOUR GEORGE III SILVER CANDLESTICKS
MARK OF PAUL STORR, LONDON, 1815
Each on shaped circular base with cast foliage and grotesque masks, the tapering stem with a grotesque mask capped knop and a shell cast socket with detachable nozzle, the bases each engraved with a coat-of-arms, the nozzles each engraved with two crests, each marked on base and nozzle
9.7/8 in. (25 cm.) high
115 oz. 18 dwt. (3,605 gr.)
The arms are those of Taylor quartering Watson with Taylor quartering another, possibly Houghton, in pretence, for George Watson Taylor (b.c.1770-1841) of Erlestoke Park, Wiltshire and his wife Anna Susanna (d.1853), daughter and eventual heiress of Sir John Taylor 1st Bt. (d.1788) F.R.S., of Lyssons, Jamaica, whom he married in 1810.

George Watson Taylor (1771-1841) of Erlestoke Park, Devizes, Wiltshire.

Specialist note

The right to assumed the additional name and arms of Taylor was granted by royal license in 1815 upon inheriting the Taylor estates following the death of her brother Sir Simon Bissett Taylor Bt. George Watson Taylor, already well off financially through his family's sugar plantations in Jamaica, found himself in control of a vast fortune. He embarked on a successful political career and between 1816 and 1832 was Member of Parliament for Newport, Isle of Wight, Seaford, East Looe and finally Devizes. He was considered one of the greatest collectors and connoisseurs of the 19th Century and he spent lavishly on art. Despite his enormous wealth he squandered his income, estimated in 1815 to be £95,000 a year. This decline in fortunes forced him to part with his collections, until finally the contents of his lavish home, Erlestoke Park in Wiltshire, were dispersed in an auction sale containing 3,572 lots (9th July-1st August 1832).