Soup tureen

Date1755-1775

Probably by Thomas Chamberlain

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 9 3/8"; OL: 16 3/8"; OW: 9 3/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1977-379

Descriptionsoup tureen
Label TextBy the time Chamberlain fashioned this splendid tureen, coordinated pewter dinner services, usually headed by one or a pair of soup tureens and accompanied by both soup and dinner plates and a complement of dishes in graduated sizes, were being produced to compete with those in porcelain, earthenware, and fused silver plate (also called Sheffield plate). Chamberlain was the most notable London maker of fashionable dinnerwares of the third quarter of the eighteenth century. When this tureen was auctioned in 1977, it was sold with remnants of its original service, including an oval dish, three soup plates, and ten dinner plates. All the plates and dishes in this service were of royal shape, that is, of serpentine outline, and armorial engravings of the Sackville family with the coronet of the Dukes of Dorset. Knole, their residence in Kent, is one of grandest country houses in Great Britain. Further, these other pieces of the service are all marked by Chamberlain, strengthening the attribution of the soup tureen to him.

This tureen is certainly one of the most felicitous English pewter tureens in the rococo style. Its form and detailing, in substance and nuance, are sensitively adjusted to contemporary silver and silver plate (Sheffield plate) examples (see CWF accession 1991-1070). Absent are the awkward contours, the short stiff legs with ball and claw feet, and the less-articulated rims and handles found on most other pewter tureens by this maker and others of this general date. Just compare this tureen with CWF 1956-344, 1-2. Perhaps the aristocratic client made design requests for this service.

Occasionally, pewter tureens appear in the early records of Williamsburg and Yorktown, usually listed without the full supporting cast of matching plates and dishes. They are included in the inventories of Williamsburg tavern keeper James Shields in 1750/51, Williamsburg physician Kenneth McKenzie in 1755, Yorktown tavern keeper and saddler James Mitchell in 1772, and Williamsburg saddler Alexander Craig in 1776.

InscribedArms with supporters, motto, and ducal coronet of Sackville, Duke of Dorset, engraved on opposite sides of body with crest and ducal coronet engraved on opposite sides of cover, probably for Lionel Sackville, 10th Earl of Middlesex, became 1st Duke of Dorset in 1720 and died in 1765. His son Charles, the 2nd duke, died without children in 1769. His nephew, John, succeeded to the title, and he served as the 3rd duke until his death in 1799.
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceVendor: Sotheby's, London, 1977. Probably originally owned by the Sackville family, the Dukes of Dorset, at Knole in Kent, England.

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