John Sandon
Consultant
Lot 153
A large and unusual last half of the 17th century leaded bronze cauldron, English, probably West Country
31 January 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £3,125 inc. premium
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A large and unusual last half of the 17th century leaded bronze cauldron, English, probably West Country
With everted rim and angular lug handles, the body with a central band of saltires forming a lattice between a pair of wires or cords, on three ribbed feet each issuing ribs running up the side of the body, 43.5cm rim diameter x 34cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
Roger Warner, High Street, Burford, Oxfordshire
Sold Christie's, 'The Roger Warner Collection', South Kensington, 20 - 21 January 2009, Lot 262
This cauldron bears two scratch-marks, one a downward pointing arrow-type mark, the other a capital 'I' with a bar across the middle. These marks are reminiscent of those used by either James Fathers or John Fathers II of the Fathers Foundry in Montacute, Somerset, or by the founder known as Floweree of Salisbury, Wiltshire, who operated there in the 17th century.
Neither of these foundries, however, are known to have produced cauldrons with a decorative band about the middle. Here, a series of saltires are enclosed by a pair of wires, a method of decoration which most closely resembles an anonymous cauldron with the legend 'GOD SAVE OVR KING JAMES', the words also bounded by a similar pair of cords. The latter cauldron has been attributed to the West Country. This cauldron also shares the decorative ribs running up the body from the feet. A cauldron in the Burrell Collection (Inventory No. 5 & 6/163), is decorated with the legend 'I AM SOOVND AND SWET'.
See R. Butler & C. Green, English Bronze Cooking Vessels & their Founders 1350 - 1830 (2003), pp. 49 - 67 and pp. 145 - 6.