Live Auction 21907Bayreuth: A Connoisseur's Collection of English Silver and Gold Boxes
A GEORGE II SILVER TOILET BOX AND COVER FROM THE WARRINGTON PLATE
Lot 150

A GEORGE II SILVER TOILET BOX AND COVER FROM THE WARRINGTON PLATE

MARK OF JAMES SHRUDER, LONDON, 1745

Closed7 July 2023

Estimate

GBP 20,000–30,000

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A GEORGE II SILVER TOILET BOX AND COVER FROM THE WARRINGTON PLATE
MARK OF JAMES SHRUDER, LONDON, 1745
Plain circular on moulded spreading foot, with detachable domed stepped cover, engraved on body and cover with a coat-of-arms, beneath earl's coronet, marked on base and cover, and engraved with scratchweights 14=10 and 6 oz=1 dwt
5 in. (12.7 cm.) diameter
20 oz. 5 dwt. (631 gr.)
The arms are those of Booth, for George, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758).

George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758), of Dunham Massey, Cheshire, then by descent to his daughter,
Lady Mary Booth (1704-1772), wife of Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768), by descent to their son,
George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and his wife Lady Henrietta Bentinck (1727-1837) and by descent to,
Catherine, Lady Grey (1860-1925) of Enville Hall, Staffordshire, her son Sir John Foley-Grey 8th Bt. (1893-1938),
Catherine, Lady Grey and Sir John Foley-Grey; Christie's, London, 20 April 1921, lot 150.
Tythrop Park; Christie's, London, 27 April 1995, lot 86.
Stefan Edlis (1925-2019) of Chicago, art collector and philanthropist,
Mr Stefan Edlis; Christie's, New York, 19 October 2010, lot 152.

Specialist note


OATMEAL BOXES
This box for oatmeal was one of only three recorded by the Earl in his The Particulars of my Plate and its Weight and would have contained homemade soap or cosmetic cream made from oatmeal; the boxes were for storage and the seven 'oatmeal plates' for use. In their exhaustive and scholarly study of the Earl's silver, Lomax and Rothwell, op. cit., pp. 102-103 note that it was unlikely that the oatmeal boxes and plates were for the storage of oatmeal for consumption, as at this time in wealthy households oatmeal was only used as animal feed. There are contemporary references to pomatum or powder boxes, but these are usually found as part of a complete toilet service, and to complicate matters further the inventory also lists a 'Hand Powder Box', which formed part of the Earl's personal 'chamber plate', sold Christie's, London, 27 April 1995, lot 85.