A COMMONWEALTH SILVER PORRINGER

LONDON, 1658, MARK WH A MULLET ABOVE AN ANNULET ENCLOSING A PELLET BENEATH, ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HARRISON

Details

Of baluster form, on rope-twist circular foot, the body boldly chased with daffodils and peonies, a bird preying on a beetle and a bird with a cherry in its beak, with two beaded caryatid scroll handles, the neck engraved on one side with a coat-of-arms, marked on body
5 1/2 in. (14 cm.) high
22 oz. 19 dwt. (713 gr.)
The arms are those of Burton almost certainly for Thomas Burton (1645-1710), who married his wife Elizabeth at St. Margaret's Westminster in 1767. Their daughter Honora (b.c.1686-1756) married Isaac Borough (or Borrow) (1573-1745) Barrister, Mayor of Derby in 1730 and 1742.
Provenance

Thomas Burton (1645-1710), of London, by descent to his daughter,
Honora Burton (b.c.1686-1756) wife of Isaac Borough (1673-1745), Mayor of Derby, by descent to,
Colonel John George Burton Borough (1890-1960) of Chetwynd Park, Shropshire.
The late Colonel J. B. Borough; Sotheby's, London, 4 May 1961, lot 150.
With S. J. Shrubsole, New York.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 19 October 2004, lot 1084.
Lot Essay

The mark WH, star above, pellet in annulet below was first attributed to William Harrison by Gerald Taylor and confirmed by Dr. David Mitchell in Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, their Lives and their Marks, London, 2017, p. 579.
William Harrison, son of Thomas Harrison, a yeoman of Sheldon, Warwickshire, was an apprenticed to Abraham Smith, a plateworker, from 1638 until 1647. He became free by service in 1646 and then served with Smith in Lombard Street, then establishing an independent trade there having gaining his freedom. His surviving output includes a range of works from ecclesiastical items such a paten and a pair of alms dishes, to porringers and sweet meat dishes, which form the majority of his work, however one of his most exceptional pieces is a plain circular sideboard dish with very finely engraved arms, those of the 18th Earl of Kildare, (1661-1707), which is now in the Gilbert Collection and illustrated in T. Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Silver and Gold, Los Angeles, 1988, pp., cat. no. 26, p. 117. Other important works include a twelve sided cup and cover, made for John Buckland, of West Harptree in Somerset, now in the Fogg Art Museum, Boston, USA. A tazza by Harrison, from 1658 was exhibited in 1929 at Queen Charlotte's Loan Exhibition of Old Silver at Seaford House, cat. no. 162.
Furthermore, he worked for leading goldsmith-bankers Edward Backwell and Sir Robert Vyner, in London. He crafted items such as two scabbards for Backwell, in 1667, commissioned by the Committee of Treasury. Backwell was also commissioned in 1670, by either Prince Rupert himself or the Jewell House, to make a new set of dining plate for the Prince, which cost a total of £960. Harrison was among the many silversmiths that were tasked with this commission. He also worked for the King’s goldsmith, Sir Robert Vyner, as a subcontractor. He was active within the Goldsmiths’ Company throughout his career and was one of the forty volunteers to wait upon the newly appointed Lord Mayor, Thomas Vyner, in 1653.
During his long career he had ten apprentices. A number became notable tradesmen, such as Joseph Ash, William Denny and John Bache. Harrison is thought to have retired to the country soon after his last apprentice took his freedom in 1680. This is evident as in his will of 1701 he is described as 'Goldsmith of Aston, Birmingham', only a few miles from his native village of Sheldon.