Set of twelve soup plates

Date1750-1770

Artist/Maker Thomas Chamberlain

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 1 1/4"; Diam: 9 11/16"; W (rim):1 7/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1956-346,2

DescriptionDeep plate in the wavy-edge pattern with five-lobed double-reeded rim. The rim is slightly concave, and the well has a hammered booge, showing on the underside. The name "CHAMBERLAIN" in a rectangle was struck on the underside of the rim across a joint between the lobes before the crimping of the joint was finished. Centered in one of the lobes on the top side of the rim are the arms of the first Baron Edgcumbe of Mount Edgcumbe: GU. on a band ermines cotised or, three boar's heads couped ar. (crest not shown here.) Supporters - 2 greyhounds ar. guttee-de-poix, gorged with a collar dovetailed gu. Mottom-Au plaisir fort de Dieu.
Label TextThese splendid soup plates and a dozen dinner plates (1956-345, 1-12), as well as a pair of soup tureens (1977-379), are part of a large dinner service that Thomas Chamberlain supplied to the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, whose engraved armorial appears on each piece. When these plates were sold in 1956, eighty-two additional plates, twelve soup plates, and thirty dishes in various sizes, both circular and oval, were also put up at auction. It is of interest to note how these and other plates and dishes, not only with fancy rims, but also with shaped faces to their rims and short, pinched creases pointing inward between each serpentine rim section, were made. It becomes clear that the were cast plain with flat rims, then the face of the rim was shaped and creased before the decorative edging was applied in sections and the edges trimmed. This procedure is particularly evident with many of Chamberlain's plates and dishes. Invariably, the large oblong label with his name extends in and out of a crease, indicating that it was stamped prior to the shaping.

InscribedArms with supporters, motto, and baron's coronet of Baron Mount Edgcumbe of Mount Edgcumbe, Devon, engraved on face of each rim. The arms are those of either (1) Richard Edgcumbe (d. 1758), 1st Baron Edgcumbe, (2) his son Richard Edgcumbe (d. unmarried in 1761), 2nd Baron Edgcumbe, or (3) his brother George Edgcumbe (d. 1795), 3rd Baron Edgcumbe, created Viscount Mount Edgcumbe and Valletort in 1781 and the 1st Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1789.
MarkingsTouch mark the Prince of Wales feathers with royal crown above framed by "THOMAS" and "CHAMBERLAIN" within curved reserves above and below on underside of each rim (Cotterell 873). Secondary mark a label "CHAMBERLAIN" within an oblong rectangle with beaded upper and lower edges on underside of each rim opposite touch mark (Cotterell 873).
ProvenanceSold by the trustees of the 7th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and purchased by Colonial Williamsburg at Sotheby & Co., London, 1956.