A PAIR OF GEORGE III SILVER STIRRUP CUPS

The Wrekin is a prominent hill close to the Attingham Park estate in east Shropshire, England, located some five miles west of Telford. "To all friends round the Wrekin" was the rousing toast heard amongst the people of Shropshire whilst fox-hunting. It appears to have taken root both in North and South Shropshire around 1770 as the toast can be found on a similar fox-mask stirrup cup of 1769 by Thomas Pitts with the inscription 'Success to Fox hunting and all Friends Round the Wrekin'. J. Bannister notes that the first pack of foxhounds was established in the area by Squire Forester of Willey Hall, whose family has for many generations occupied the post of Foresters of the Royal Forest of Wrekin ('Cups of the Chase', Country Life, vol. 162, issue 4195, 1 December 1977, p. 1613). The article also illustrates a stirrup cup of 1802 by the same maker as the present lot. Two pairs of stirrup cups dating from 1769 and 1770, similarly engraved, were recorded in the collection of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (E. Alfred Jones, 'The Plate at Wynnstay of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart'., Connoisseur, vol. 96, no. 407, July 1935, p. 14). It is possible the cups offered here are early 19th-century replicas of the 1769 and 1770 pairs cited by Jones.