Images(10)

Candlesticks

Date1763

Maker William Cafe

OriginEngland, London

MediumSterling silver

DimensionsHeight: 11 1/4"; Across foot; 6 5/8"; Across bobeche: 3 5/16"

Credit LineAnonymous gift in loving memory of Mann Page

Object number2024-3,1-2A&B

DescriptionPair of ornate silver candlesticks, each cast in halves and attached to a cast base, with removable bobeches. They are columnar, with large six-pointed knops set below baluster-shaped sockets and smaller knops above a six-bay bases. All elements are covered in cast, chased and engraved rococo devices, rendered in high relief, and including flowers, scrolls, foliage, and gadrooning. A cartouche at the front of each base is engraved with a chevron separating three martlets (with feet), being a variation of the Page arms. Each bobeche is engraved with a crest of a horse's head facing to the left.

2024-3,1A&B - A=candlestick; B=bobeche
2024-3,2A&B - A=candlestick; B=bobeche
Label TextOrdered for use in one of colonial America's grandest houses, these silver candlesticks once illuminated Rosewell, the seat of the Page family of Gloucester County, Virginia. Today the mansion is a beloved ruin, and items which once adorned its spaces still surface almost two centuries after the family sold the property. These candlesticks are a prime example, having descended though nine generations of the Page family until given to Colonial Williamsburg in 2024.

According to family tradition, these were first owned by John Page (1743-1801), who grew up at Rosewell and inherited the property when his father died in 1778. Page attended William and Mary, and served as the thirteenth Governor of Virginia from late 1802 through late 1805. He was also a close friend of Thomas Jefferson, his classmate and a frequent guest at the mansion.

As the nineteenth century progressed and succeeding heirs to the candlesticks moved westward, they were used in Page households near Charlottesville, Virginia, and Denver, Colorado by the end of the century. Before coming home to Virginia in the current century, they were cherished by descendants in New England.
MarkingsEach candlestick struck on the inside of the foot with the standard London sterling hallmarks for 1763, plus Cafe's mark of a Gothic "W C" below a cinquefoil, all in relief within a three-lobed cartouche (Grimwade-3077). Additionally, both sockets are struck with the Lion Passant, and one carries Cafe's mark.
ProvenanceAccording to family tradition these candlesticks were originally owned by Governor John Page (1743-1808), and may have been acquired at the time of his ca.1765 marriage to Frances "Fanny" Burwell Page (1747-1784). Then by decent to Mann Page (1766-1813), Mann Page (1794-1842), Dr. John Randolph Page (1830-1901), Mann Page (of Denver, CO, 1861-1893), Mann Page (1881-1961) and Rosamond Page Putnam (1918-2011), and David F. Putnam Jr. (b.1941), father of the donor who gifted them in 2024 to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.