A William III silver-gilt Tazza, London 1701
Diameter: 13 ½ inches (34.2 cm)

Weight: 52 ounces (1,631 grams)

Circular, on slightly domed pedestal foot, with moulded border, the centre engraved with two coats-of-arms accollé within foliate, strapwork and grotesque mask mantling.

The arms are those of Grenville accollé with Leofric quartering Temple, for Richard Grenville (1678-1727) and his wife Hester (d. 1752), sister of Sir Richard Temple 5th Bt. Of Stowe (1675-1749), later created 1st Viscount Cobham. They were married in 1710. On the death of Viscount Cobham Hester succeeded her brother to the Stowe estates and was created Countess Temple.

Provenance: Richard Grenville of Wooton, co. Buckingham (1678-1727) and by descent to
Richard Plantagenet, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1797-1861).
Stowe House; Christie’s house sale, 15 August 1848 and for 37 days, the 16th day, lot 146 (£6 to Benjamin).
Edward, 22nd Baron Hastings (b.1912); Christie’s London, 9 December 1959, lot 155 (£1,350 to Lumley).

Artist Biography:
Anthony Nelme, son of John Nelme, a yeoman of Muchmerkle, Herefordshire, was recorded as an apprentice to Richard Rowley in 1672 and was then made over to Isaac Deighton. Once he was free of the Goldsmiths' Company in 1690, Nelme was elected to the court of assistants in 1703 and was made fourth warden in 1717 and then second warden in 1722. During the period of Huguenot prominence Nelme was the leading English-born goldsmiths and was a signatory to the petitions to the Goldsmith Company wardens protesting the presence of the "necessitous strangers" in London. Queen Anne and the leading members of the aristocracy were some of Nelme's patrons. Among most of his important surviving works are a pair of forty-inch alter candlesticks of 1694 at Saint George's Chapel, Windsor (Honour 1971, p. 122), and a pair of pilgrim bottles of 1715 at Chatsworth (Honour 1971, p. 125).