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A rare and interesting James II leaded bronze measure, of bushel capacity circa 1685-1688 image 1
A rare and interesting James II leaded bronze measure, of bushel capacity circa 1685-1688 image 2 - © Philip Mould Ltd, London / Bridgeman Images
Lot 78

A rare and interesting James II leaded bronze measure, of bushel capacity
circa 1685-1688

Decorative Arts: Through the Ages
13 – 14 July 2022, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £5,355 inc. premium

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A rare and interesting James II leaded bronze measure, of bushel capacity

circa 1685-1688
the rim struck four times with the dagger mark for London, and four times with an 'I' beneath a crown, the body engraved with the coat of arms of JEFFREYS to one side, and the crest of JEFFREYS to the other, both within leafy mantling, with angular lug handles and raised on three lion's paw feet, 50cm rim diameter x 17.5cm high

Footnotes

The arms engraved on this bushel measure are as follows ermine, a lion rampant sable, a canton of the last; the crest a demi-lion or jessant a laurel wreath proper. Both were borne by George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1645-1689) otherwise known to history as Judge Jeffries.

Engraved beneath a baron's coronet, they must date from 1685 or thereafter when Jeffreys was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem. This conforms with the verification marks to the measure's rim, one of which is a crowned I (J), for James II, who succeeded his brother Charles II in the same year.

Jeffreys was born at Acton Park near Wrexham in Denbighshire. His elevation to the peerage in 1685 was the culmination of a distinguished legal career. Jeffreys entered the Inner Temple in 1663 and was called to the bar in 1668. He obtained his first public legal office in 1671, when he was elected common serjeant of London. In 1677, he was knighted and made king's counsel. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Recorder of London, the city's highest legal office. It was shortly afterwards that he opened the treason case against Edward Coleman, and he presided - with others - over the trial of conspirator William Ireland, both accused as part of the Popish Plot unleashed by Titus Oates. Jeffreys, as recorder, pronounced sentence. In 1679, James, then duke of York, asked Jeffreys to serve as his solicitor-general and in 1681, the King made Jeffreys a baronet. Two years later, he was appointed Chief Justice of the King's Bench and was sworn a member of the Privy Council. In 1684, he was engaged in prosecuting members of the Rye House Plot, including Sir Thomas Armstrong.

On 16 May 1685, Jeffreys was raised to the peerage, his title taken from the Shropshire manor he had acquired the year before. In July, he and four other judges were sent on assizes in the west of England, to try rebels captured after the battle of Sedgemoor following Monmouth's rebellion. Jeffreys has been pilloried for his part in the death of Lady Alice Lisle, an elderly widow accused of treason for giving shelter to a few of the rebels. Cross-examined vigorously by Jeffreys, she was executed, but it has been noted by scholars in recent years that it was James II who denied her mercy. Approximately two hundred rebels were executed and another thousand were transported to the West Indies. On his return to London, in September 1685, Jeffreys was made Lord Chancellor.

Jeffreys did not endorse the King's attempts to seek toleration for Catholics by remodelling county benches and urban corporations, and his influence appears to have waned slightly thanks to the rising influence of Catholics at court. In April 1687, he refused to sign James' first declaration of indulgence. However, in 1688, he was present when the Prince of Wales was born and, in July 1688, when Jeffrey's son John married Lady Charlotte, the heir of Philip Herbert, seventh earl of Pembroke, the king was present at Bulstrode, the estate purchased by Jeffrey's in the 1670s and rebuilt (after a fire) in the mid-1680s.

His fortunes followed those of James II, and Jeffreys, caught trying to flee the realm, died in prison in 1689. In his will, he explained that he had been 'in hopes not withstanding my long indisposition of belly [he had been ill for some years]...' of recovering 'soe much strength as to have been able to have vindicated myself...'. He left five children, three from his first marriage and two from his second. His son, John, left a single surviving daughter, Henrietta Louisa, later Countess of Pomfret.

Despite his reputation for cruelty and vindictive judgments, Jeffreys was also celebrated as a very able lawyer, and a master of cross-examination who presided ably in civil cases. None of his decrees as Lord Chancellor were later reversed.

It is, perhaps, of interest that two similar bushel measures survive at Erddig, not far from Acton Park, where Jeffreys was born and grew up. One (NT114768) is dated 1663 and the other (NT1147687), 1716. The latter is inscribed for John Meller, 'Farmer of the Toll' within the town of Wrexham, and dates from the year he acquired Erddig from Joshua Edisbury. Both measures have more typical stylised paw feet. Interestingly, Sir Godfrey Kneller's (1646/9-1723) portrait of George Jeffreys, together with a portrait of his brother (NT1151315), Sir Thomas Jeffreys, hang at Erddig and were reputedly acquired by the Yorke family (then owners of Erddig) in the late 18th century.

Additional information

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