- Museum number
- S3
- Object
- Rosewater dish, English (London), silver-gilt, 1616/17
- Description
- Hexafoil, egg and dart border, the flat rim decorated with repouss\'e9 foliate scrolls, the interior sloping to the centre, divided by six pleated panels with chased scrolls and draped festooning, one panel engraved with crown and motto of the Order of the Garter and initial CR for Queen Charlotte, the plain boss with a similar chased frieze as the rim, designed for holding a ewer, a plaque was fitted and subsequently removed (S3A), later Holburne crest engraved on underbase.A second panel engraved with initial and coronet of H.R.H. Frederick, Duke of York.
- Materials
- Silver - Silver-gilt
- Inscription
- Maker's mark: a trefoil within a bordure 1616.
- On display?
- Yes
Further description
- Simple name
- Silver
- Subject
- Decorative
Rosewater basin
English (London)
Silver-gilt, 1616/17
S3
This rare survival of pre-Civil War English silver was later in the collection of Queen Charlotte. When first made, it would have been filled with scented water from a matching ewer and carried around among dinner guests for them to wash their fingers.
Wealthy hosts in the seventeenth century would dazzle and impress their dinner guests with imposing displays of gold, silver and precious things piled up on tiered buffets against the walls. Highly decorated silver objects from the German cities of Nuremberg and Augsburg were particularly prized for their elaborate showiness.
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