A Highly Important Three Piece Centrepiece Garniture
Silver London, 1817 Maker's mark of Paul Storr Retailed by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell

Bearing The coat-of-arms of Talbot for Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2 nd Earl Talbot of Hensol

Height: the pair 53 cm, 20.8in; the single 80 cm, 31.4in
Weight: 42 811 g, 376oz 8dwt

Provenance: Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2 nd Earl Talbot of Hensol, KG, FRS, FSA (1777 to 1849) as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1817 and then by descent to his second son, Admiral Henry Chetwynd-Talbot, 3 rd Earl Talbot and 18 th Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford CB, PC (1803-1869) and then by descent to his eldest son, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 4 th Earl Talbot and 19 th Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford PC (1830-1872) and by descent to his grand-son, John Chetwynd-Talbot, 6 th Earl Talbot and 21 th Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford (1914-1980) Sale of the Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, Sotheby's London, 13 October 1960, lot 129 (1,650 pounds awarded to T. Lumley) Thomas Lumley Ltd

Since at least 1992, in the collection of Robert de Balkany.
Literature: A. Andrews, A Short History in Ingestre, Stafford, 2015, p. 29.
The Times, 'The saleroom', 14 October 1960, p. 7.
Art in Industry: The Silver of Paul Storr, Cambridge, 2015, p.112
An important George III table garniture comprising of three large centrepieces retailed by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. All with cast and applied coats-of-arms for Talbot. Each piece formed as a candelabra centrepiece, resting on scrolled shell feet supporting the base with applied and cast coat-of-arms for Talbot with talbot dogs as supporters above the family motto ' Humani Nihil' The branches issuing from scrolling acanthus and acanthus flowers The main bowls decorated with garlands of ivy.

The Earls of Talbot and Ingestre Hall:

The arms are those borne by Talbot Chetwynd and Chetwynd Lambart for Charles, 2nd Earl Talbot of Hensol (1777-1849). He was born and baptized in the parish of St. George's in Hanover Square on25th April 1777. He became Viscount Ingestre in 1784, he took the title of Count on the death of his father in May 1793, before entering Christ Church College Oxford the following year. After college, he joined the embassy of Lord Whitworth in Russia as a voluntary attaché. On his return to England, he married on 28th August 1800 at St George Hanover Square to Frances Thomasine (1782-1819), eldest daughter of Charles Lambart of Beau Park, County Meath in Ireland, and sister of James, 1 st Baron Sherborne. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. Frances died in labour but left a daughter and a son, Henry John Chetwynd successor as 3 rdEarl of Talbot, also holding the title of 18 th Earl of Shrewsbury from 1856. In order to prevent a possible Napoleonic invasion, Talbot was involved in raising an army of volunteers in Staffordshire. Appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1817 until 1821, which is presumably why this service was commissioned. He was also Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire from 1812 and, throughout his life was a huge supporter of agriculture. On 10th January 1849, he died at the age of 72 years at Ingestre Hall where he is buried.
Before becoming the official home of the Earls of Shrewsbury and Talbot in the eighteenth century, Ingestre Hall was built in 1613 on the foundations of an ancient manor house for Sir Walter Chetwynd. Located near Stafford in Staffordshire, its brick facade incorporates several Renaissance influences, including Jacobian. When the grand-son of Walter, the first Viscount Chetwynd, inherited the estate at the end of the 17 th century, he made some changes. It was not until 19 th century that more work was undertaken by the architect John Nash at the request of the 2 nd Earl of Talbot. Desiring more sumptuous interiors, the count did not only employ the architect of the king but also his cabinetmaker and his goldsmith. So Marsh and Tatham's fine furnishings were made for the dining room including a suite of six wine coolers by Paul Storr and this wonderful table garniture. Being as complete as this suite is ranks it amongst the most important surviving testimonies of Regency silverware.


Artist Biography:
Son of Thomas Storr of Westminster, first silver-chaser later innkeeper, born 1771. Apprenticed c'1785. Before his first partnership with William Frisbee in 1792 he worked at Church Street, Soho, which was the address of Andrew Fogelberg, This is also the address at which Storr's first separate mark is also entered. First mark entered as plateworker, in partnership with William Frisbee, 2 May 1792. Address: 5 Cock Lane, Snow Hill. Second mark alone, 12 January 1793. Address: 30 Church Street, Soho. Third mark, 27 April 1793. Fourth 8 August 1794. Moved to 20 Air Street, 8 October 1796, (where Thomas Pitts had worked till 1793). Fifth mark, 29 November 1799. Sixth, 21 August 1807. Address 53 Dean Street, Soho. Seventh, 10 February 1808. Ninth, 21 October 1813. Tenth, 12 September 1817. Moved to Harrison Street, Gray's Inn Road, 4 March 1819, after severing his connection with Rundell, Bridge and Rundell. Eleventh mark, 2 September 1883. Address: 17 Harrison Street. Twelfth and last mark, 2 September 1833. Heal records him in partnership with Frisbee and alone at Cock Lane in 1792, and at the other addresses and dates above, except Harrison Street. Storr married in 1801, Elizabeth Susanna Beyer of the Saxon family of piano and organ builders of Compton Street, by whom he had ten children. He retired in 1838, to live in Hill House in Tooting. He died 18 March 1844 and is buried in Tooting Churchyard. His will, proved 3 April 1844, shows an estate of £3000. A memorial to him in Otely Church, Suffolk was put up by his son Francis the then incumbent of the parish. For full details of Storr's relationship with Rundell, Bridge and Rundell please see N.M. Penzer, 1954 or Royal Goldsmiths, The Art of Rundell and Bridge, 2005.

Storr's reputation rests on his mastery of the grandoise neo-Classical style developed in the Regency period. His early pieces up to about 1800 show restrained taste, although by 1797 he had produced the remarkable gold font for the Duke of Portland. Here, however the modelling of the classical figures must presumably have been the work of a professional sculptor, as yet unidentified, and many of the pieces produced by him for Rundell and Bridge in the Royal Collection must have sprung from designs commissioned by that firm rather than from his own invention. On the other hand they still existed in his Harrison Street workshop, until destroyed in World War II, a group of Piranesi engravings of classical vases and monuments bearing his signature, presumably used as source material for designs. The massiveness of the best of his compositions is well shown in the fine urn of 1800 at Woborn Abbey, but the Theocritus Cup in the Royal Collection must be essentially ascribed to the restraint of its designer John Flaxman, while not denying to Storr its superb execution. Lord Spencer's ice pails of 1817 show similar quality. Not all Storr's work however wasof classical inspiration. The candelabra of 1807 at Woburn derive from candlesticks by Paul Crespin of the George II period, formerly part of the Bedford Collection, and he attempted essays in floral rococo design from time to time, which tend to over-floridity. On occasions the excellence of his technical qualities was marred by a lack of good proportions, as in the chalices of the church plate of St Pancras, 1821. In spite of these small lapses there is no doubt that Storr rose to the demands made upon him as the author of more fine display plate than any other English goldsmith, including Paul De Lamerie, was ever called upon to produce.