Live Auction 21907Bayreuth: A Connoisseur's Collection of English Silver and Gold Boxes
A COMMONWEALTH SILVER SMALL TANKARD
Lot 199

A COMMONWEALTH SILVER SMALL TANKARD

LONDON, 1651, MAKER'S MARK HW WITH MULLET BELOW, PROBABLY ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY WHITTINGHAM

Closed7 July 2023

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GBP 11,340

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A COMMONWEALTH SILVER SMALL TANKARD
LONDON, 1651, MAKER'S MARK HW WITH MULLET BELOW, PROBABLY ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY WHITTINGHAM
Tapering cylindrical, on spreading foot, the flat-domed cover with shaped peak and bifurcated thumbpiece, the top of the scroll handle pricked with interlaced scrollwork, engraved with a coat-of-arms within foliate mantling and pricked on one side with initials TH surrounded by flowerheads and on the handle with a foliate cartouche, marked on base and cover
5 1/2 in. (14 cm.) high
13oz. 10dwt. (419 gr.)
The arms are those of Chapman of Thringstone, co. Leicester.

Col. William Fearon Tipping (1847-1911), of Brasted Place, Brasted, Kent;
Colonel Tipping, deceased, late of Brasted Place, Brasted, Kent; Christie's, London, 15 May 1911, lot 65 (£309 to Crichton),
With Crichton Brothers, London, from 1911.
Sir John Henry Brunel Noble of Ardkinglas, 1st Bt. (1865-1938), by descent to his third son,
Michael Anthony Cristobal Noble, later Baron Glenkinglas (1913-1984),
Michael Nobel Esq., and formerly part of the Collection of the late Sir John Noble, Bart; Christie's, London, 13 December 1944, lot 51 (£440 to How).
With How of Edinburgh, London.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 24 October 2000, lot 410.

Specialist note


HENRY WHITTINGHAM
Recent research by Dr. David Mitchell, op. cit., p. 335 attributes this mark to Henry Whittingham, the son of Gowan Whittingham of Tottenham High Cross, Middlesex. A plate worker, he was apprenticed to Thomas Francis in 1630, becoming free by service in 1638. He is listed in the Goldsmiths' Company's record for a number of infringements, however, he was one of the forty goldsmiths who volunteered to wait upon Thomas Vyner (1588–1665) when he was installed as Lord Mayor in 1653. He took on five apprentices of his own, one of whom, Richard Neale, became one of the leading plate works of his time. Mitchell lists eight pieces with his mark, including the present lot, with dates ranging from 1646 to 1661.