A PAIR OF CHARLES II SILVER SNUFFERS

LONDON, CIRCA 1680, MAKERS MARK B OVER W FLANKED BY SCROLLS, POSSIBLY FOR BERNARD WHITE

Details

Of typical form, flat-chased in the Chinoiserie style with birds, bull-rushes and branches, marked on box, point and handles with maker's mark only
7 in. (17.8 cm.) long
3 oz. 8 dwt. (104 gr.)
Literature

D. Mitchell, Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, Their Lives and Their Marks, London, 2017, p. 249.
Lot Essay

Bernard White was the son of John White of Yateley, Hampshire, yeoman, and was apprenticed to John Carwardine for eight years becoming free by service on 19 October 1670. He was most certainly retailing as well as making and ran a busy workshop of eight apprentices between 1674 and 1693.
An almost identical pair of snuffers, also by White, but without the Chinoiserie decoration, is illustrated in Sir Charles Jackson, An Illustrated History of English Plate, London, 1911, p. 879, fig. 1150, from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. His mark is also struck on the snuffers in the Bedford Toilet Service of circa 1675, in a private collection.