Live Auction 14227The Collector: Silver,19th Century Furniture, Sculpture & Works of Art
A WILLIAM IV SILVER CANDELABRUM CENTREPIECE
Lot 427

A WILLIAM IV SILVER CANDELABRUM CENTREPIECE

'MARK OF EDWARD, EDWARD, JOHN AND WILLIAM BARNARD, LONDON, 1834, THE THREE SEATED FIGURES WITH MAKER'S MARK OF WILLIAM KER REID'.

Closed16 November 2017

Price Realised

GBP 6,875

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A WILLIAM IV SILVER CANDELABRUM CENTREPIECE
'MARK OF EDWARD, EDWARD, JOHN AND WILLIAM BARNARD, LONDON, 1834, THE THREE SEATED FIGURES WITH MAKER'S MARK OF WILLIAM KER REID'.
The tricorn base on three openwork foliage-cast feet, the corners applied with military trophies and the sides engraved with an inscription and two coats-of-arms, applied with three cast figures emblematic of the arts, music and science, flanking the tapering stem and with three detachable foliage-cast branches, each terminating in a foliage-cast socket and with conforming wax-pan and nozzle, with a central support for the cut glass bowl, marked under base, on stem, figures, trophies, branches, support for bowl, sockets and nozzles
23 ¼ in. (59 cm.) high
174 oz. (5,411 gr.)
The inscription reads 'Presented by The Honorable The House of Assembly Jamaica to Commodore Arthur Farquhar and Second in Command in the West Indies in Testimony of the high sense entertained of his services during the late disturbances 1832'.

The arms are those of Jamaica and Farquhar with an honourable augmentation representing the city of Glückstadt within the motto of the Royal Guelphic Order and orders beneath, for Commodore (later rear Admiral) Sir Arthur Farquhar K.C.H. (1772-1843).

Presented to Commodore Sir Arthur Farquhar K.C.H. (1772-1843) by the Jamaican House of Assembly and then bequeathed to his son
Lieutenant Arthur Farquhar, later Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar (1815-1908).

Specialist note

Farquhar was the son of a Scottish landowner and brother of William Farquhar (1774-1839), colonial administrator of Singapore. Arthur Farquhar joined the navy in 1787, serving first in India and then the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas. He led the British forces which, with the Swedish army, captured the city of Glückstadt in 1814, driving out the Napoleonic forces. For this he was made a knight of the Sword of Sweden. The present lot was awarded to him when in command of the ship Blanche by the Jamaican House of Assembly and a group of Jamaican merchants in 1833, together with a sword valued at £150 for his services suppressing a slave revolt on the island.

A group of merchants met in Kingston on 6 June 1833 and resolved to raise a subscription, 'the proceeds to be remitted to England, for the purchase of a piece of plate with a suitable inscription testifying the esteem and respect of the inhabitants for Commodore Sir Arthur Farquhar, the period of whose service as commanding office of that station had expired, and who was to sail from Port Royal on that Day.' (The Pilot, Dublin, 24 June 1833, p.2). The piece of plate, the centrepiece offered here, was later presented to Farquhar and was still in his possession in 1843 when he made his will leaving a Patriotic Fund Sword and '...several of the honorary piece[s] of plate presented to me by the merchants of Malta and Jamaica to be by him [his son Lieut. Arthur Farquhar] preserved and kept in the line of Farquhar'. (The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1989).