Silver in the Clark Art Institute - Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 1997 by Beth Carver Wees

My collection of English silver is excellent," wrote Robert Sterling Clark in a diary entry of June 3, 1940, and indeed it was, even by that date. Clark's earliest silver purchases were made about 1913 from the London firm of Crichton Brothers, whose New York City shop would later supply much of his collection.(1) He was partial to Crichton's large stock of Huguenot silver,(2) which suited his preference for the work of the French emigres - a preference unabashedly articulated in his diary on October 28, 1941: "Whenever English silver was good it was because French silversmiths came to England!!!...Good artisans the English but bad artists."

Clark's silver purchases escalated dramatically during the 1930s and 1940s, as did his collecting in general. Surviving invoices indicate that by the late 1930s he was spending from forty to fifty thousand dollars a year on silver. By the end of his life he had accumulated a collection of astonishing size and breadth, comprised largely of English, Irish, and Scottish objects, but also including the work of French, German, Dutch, American, Russian, and Scandinavian goldsmiths. When, in the early 1950s, Clark decided to give the Williamstown, Massachusetts, public a preview of the treasures to be exhibited in his museum, he chose the silver collection as enticement.(3)

In the years since the musuem opened, the collection has been augmented by significant purchases and gifts. Its richness today derives not only from its acknowledged masterpieces but also from its wide and varied range of domestic objects, inviting examination from both stylistic and sociohistorical perspectives.

A maple mazer bowl with silver-gilt mounts, dating from about 1500 to 1530, is the earliest English piece in the collection [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE II OMITTED]. Such turned wooden bowls were usually made from the burl of the maple tree and appear routinely in medieval wills and inventories. The addition of silver or silver-gilt mounts increased the capacity and durability of these utilitarian bowls, as well as enhancing their aesthetic and material values.(4) The shallow bowl and wide, flared silver-gilt band of this mazer identify it as a product of the early sixteenth century, as does the scalloped medallion pinned to the interior and engraved with the sacred monogram "IHS." Engraved around the lip in Gothic or Lombardic lettering is the inscription "BENEDICTA SIT SANTA TRINITAS IOHN NOBOL," also appropriate for this date, although unusual in its inclusion of the name of the original owner, John Nobol.

The magnificent basin of 1618/19 in Plate IV, acquired by the institute in 1989, is one of only two surviving English silver basins of hexafoil shape.(5) Its chased decoration of six Old Testament scenes with twin-tailed sea creatures between them is quite exceptional. The Biblical scenes are based on the designs of Etienne Delaune (1518 or 1519-1583), a French designer and engraver whose prints provided abundant source material for goldsmiths and other metalworkers.(6) The style of the strapwork cartouche that surrounds each scene reflects the influence of the school of Fontainebleau on Delaune's work.

The washing of hands with warm scented water poured from ewer to basin was a standard dining ritual well into the seventeenth century, when the use of forks became more customary. In addition to their utilitarian and ceremonial functions, basins and their accompanying ewers were among the most splendid and richly decorated pieces of display plate. The basin in Plate IV is unusually sophisticated in design, more consistent with Continental than English styling. The makers mark, "IV" with a star below, stamped on the bottom of the basin, appears on several objects of superb quality, including a silver-gilt ewer and basin of 1617/18 belonging to the City Corporation of Norwich, England.(7) It has not been conclusively identified as the mark of an English goldsmith and may have belonged to a Dutch- or German-trained craftsman working in London.

One of many innovative drinking and dining forms introduced in the late seventeenth century, the monteith was described in December 1683 by the English antiquary and diarist Anthony & Wood as "a vessel or bason notched at the brims to let drinking glasses hang there by the foot so that the body or drinking place might hang in the water to cool them."(8) Produced not only in silver but also in pewter, ceramics, and more rarely in glass, monteiths remained fashionable through the early decades of the eighteenth century. The early ones had notches in the rim, but later detachable notched collars were introduced that could be removed to convert the montieth into a punch bowl.

The monteith in Plate I is an unusually large example, with thirteen notches in its detachable collar rather than the customary eight or ten. Ornamented with fluting, gadrooning, and chased acanthus leaves, it has cast lion-mask handles of a design found with minor variations on numerous contemporary objects. More unusual is the cast and applied acanthus leaf border on the collar in place of the more traditional cherubs' heads. For nearly a century this monteith was thought to have been commissioned by John Holles (1662-1711), third duke of Newcastle, but its omission from the plate inventory taken in 1865 at Clumber, the family's country estate, refutes that belief. It did, however, belong to the dukes of Newcastle by 1902, when it was exhibited at St. James's Court in London.(9) Clark's own enthusiasm for the bowl is recorded in his diary on February 21, 1939: