A fine set of four George III silver candlesticks

by Paul Storr, London 1815 (4)

Footnotes

The shield of Taylor of Erlestoke, Wilts., and Lysson Hall, Jamaica quartering Watson of Edinburgh with supporters granted in 1815 to George Watson-Taylor (né Watson) on his adoption of the original name.

George Watson (1771-1841) was the son of a Jamaican plantation owner. He married Anna Susanna Taylor, who inherited the vast wealth of her brother Sir Simon Bissett Taylor Bt. in 1810. The change in fortunes was summed up thus by Lady Charlotte Bury:

What a wonderful change of fortunes for these persons! - from having had an income of two to three thousand a year, with tastes far beyond such limits, to almost boundless and unequalled riches! It is said they are full of projects of splendour and enjoyment.

Two of these notable projects were the purchase of Erlestoke in 1819 for £200,000 and in the same year a property in Cavendish Square for £20,000, spending a further £48,000 on its decoration. Watson-Taylor became known as a great art collector and connoisseur, featuring in Pieter Christoffel Wonder's Patrons and Lovers of Art as the kneeling figure. Out of a desire to protect his West Indian interests, he began a successful political career, and was MP for Newport, Seaford, East Looe and Devizes.

The declining sugar trade in Jamaica and the abolition of the slave trade brought financial difficulties. This, combined with his profligacy, compelled Watson-Taylor to sell his collections and his London residences. The sale of his Grafton Street house contents (excluding the dining table silver) was handled by the auctioneer George Robbins. One lot that excited interest was solid silver fire equipage including a shovel, tongs and poker which prompted one commentator in The Examiner to write:

Here we have an instance of the vulgarity which seeks admiration by the mere display of wealth, and endeavours to excite exclamations, not 'how admirable in form and execution!', 'what tasteful specimens of art are these ornaments!' but exclamations of low wonder: 'a poker of real silver!', 'all solid!', 'how rich he must be!'. It has been said that the Tories have no sense of economy; they however, attone for this deficiency, by displaying a singular economy of sense.

The sale of the table silver, which included the candlesticks of the present lot, was carried out by Christie and Manson on 28th and 29th June 1832. It was described in a contemporary newspaper advertisement as '...the very magnificent and complete table service of silver plate, weighing upwards of 18,000 ounces, of George Watson-Taylor Esq., the whole of which was executed by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, from the most elegant and costly design, prepared expressly for this service.'
The sale catalogue entries suggest that the current four were part of an original set of eighteen, describing them as '...candlesticks of rich old pattern, beautifully chased with masks and foliage in the boldest taste.'

The original total of eighteen candlesticks is supported by letters stamped on the bases of the current lot: A, H, I and one which is indecipherable. It could be that each candlestick was marked with its corresponding letter from A to R.

LITERATURE
A set of four candlesticks of this design is illustrated in Hartop, 'Art in Industry: The Silver of Paul Storr', Cambridge 2015, page 83.

Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, London.