A PAIR OF VICTORIAN SILVER SAUCEBOATS

MARK OF JOHN MORTIMER AND JOHN SAMUEL HUNT, LONDON, 1843

Details

On three foliate rocaille feet, the fluted bodies each with gadrooned rim, the handles formed as a lion rampant standing on a foliate branch, engraved below the lip with a coat-of-arms beneath a marquess' coronet and above a motto, marked on underside and stamped MORTIMER & HUNT / LONDON, 1200
9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.) long
50 oz. 9 dwt. (1,570 gr.)
Lot Essay

These highly sculptural sauceboats are inspired by earlier Rococo revival works by the great Regency silversmith Paul Storr. A graduated set of three similarly fluted sauceboats by Storr from 1829 were in the Morrie Moss Collection, most recently sold Christie's New York 19 October 2010, lot 86, illustrated in M. Moss, The Lillian and Morrie Moss Collection of Paul Storr Silver, 1972, illus. pl. 150, p. 212.
Hunt and Roskell embellished the pattern with the addition of sculptural handles, here formed as rampant lions. Examples of with heraldic horse handles were made in 1842 for the Prince Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland, whose entire dinner service was made by Mortimer & Hunt between 1840 and 1842. Another pair of horse handled sauceboats from 1842, thought to have been made for William, 8th Duke of Brunswick (1806-1884), were sold Sotheby's New York, 20 October 2020, lot 6.