A COMMONWEALTH CUP AND COVER

LONDON, 1651, MAKER'S MARK AF PROBABLY FOR ANTHONY FICKETTS

Details

The cylindrical body chased with a broad band of matting and with a circular cartouche on one side to receive initials, crest or arms, with reeded borders and skirt foot, applied with two square section loop handles, the single-step detachable cover with two concentric matted rings below the plain stud finial, the underside pricked with initials and date T/SD 1658, marked on side and cover
6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm.) high
25 oz. 14 dwt. (708 gr.)
Provenance

James Ivory Esq.; Sotheby's, London, 26 February 1942, lot 57 (£500 to C. Geddes), then by descent,
The Geddes Collection; Sotheby's, London, 8 June 1999, lot 30.
Lot Essay

This important cup is the joint earliest example of its type. The other of 1651, also by Ficketts, was sold in Christie's London in 1922 and was presented by Lord Rothermere to the Middle Temple in whose collection it remains. It was illustrated in E. Laird Clowes, 'The Rothermere Silver at the Middle Temple, Connoisseur, no. 139, March 1957, pp. 31-32, fig. 13.
Four further cups by Ficketts survive. A slightly larger example, 7 1/2 in. high weighing 40 oz., similar in style apart from having more elaborate caryatid handles, dates from 1655 and is in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg, illustrated in J. A. Hyman, Silver at Williamsburg: Drinking Vessels, no. 2. It was previously in the Swaythling collection, Christie's, London, 6 May, 1924, lot 88, when it sold for the high price of £1,000 to Crichton Brothers.
The three other similar cups with foliate decoration are: The Smith Cup of 1653, weighing 30 oz., with a chased arcade to the body, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in E. M. Alcorn, English Silver in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Vol. 1, no. 45. It was sold from the Philip Argenti Collection, Sotheby's, Monaco, 30 November, 1975.
The remaining examples are Bishop Cosin's Cup of 1657, in the collection of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, chased with scrolling foliage and caryatid handles, and The Fletcher Cup, London, 1655, sold Sotheby's London, 7 August, 1941, lot 106.
Mid 17th century English silver ornamented with matting is unusual and is mainly found on drinking vessels. The standing cup of 1632 at Winchester College is the earliest known English usage of this decoration although perhaps the most remarkable is the Franks tankard, 16oz 17dwt, James Plummer, York, 1649 which is additionally engraved with verse. It was last offered at auction at Christies London, 29 July 2020, lot 27 when it sold for £106,250.
ANTHONY FICKETTS
Dr. David Mitchell in his Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, Their Lives and Their Marks, London, 2017, attributes the maker's mark AF to the silversmith Anthony Ficketts (d.1686). Ficketts was the son of a Wiltshire clothier William Ficketts, who apprenticed his son to James Pigborne in 1627. Following his master's death in 1631 he was turned over to the plateworker Thomas Cooke. He became free of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1637.
Despite having two bowls destroyed for being below standard in 1642 and having been accused of slandering a shopkeeper, the goldsmith John Perryn over left over gold from a commission, for which he was fined, he was still elected to the Livery in 1653. Other disputes followed in later years, however this did not prevent him from becoming a successful member of the Company. The Hearth Tax of 1666 lists him living in a house with six hearths. He was made a Renter Warden of the Company in 1664 and an Assistant to the Court in 1667, although he was forced to resign from this post after accusations that he had supplied substandard wares to Sit Robert Vyner in 1669. He was later reappointed in 1683. On his death in 1686 he left the sizable sum of £100 to provide £2 each to two poor working silversmiths.

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