A Set of Four George III Candlesticks
Silver
London, 1765
Maker's mark of William Cafe
Height: 27.1cm., 10 3/4 in.
Weight: 2852gr., 91oz. 6dwt.
With detachable gadrooned sconces, the gadrooned waisted capitals on swirling-fluted stems embellished with shell motifs, spreading on shaped-square bases with gadrooned rims and shell and acanthus embellished borders, crested
Artist Biography:
Son of Biles Cafe of the parish of Blackford in the County of Somerset yeoman, apprenticed to his brother John Cafe 11 March 1742. "Turned himself over" to Simon Jouet Citizen and Goldsmith of London "for the residue of ye turn" 19 March 1746. Free 5 October 1757. Livery, March 1758. Mark entered as largeworker, 16 August 1757, probably on the death or illness of his brother John, with whom he was presumably already working, to judge by their indistinguishable cast candlesticks of which, from surviving examples, they appear almost to have had a monopoly in the trade. Heal records him in Gutter Lane till bankruptcy in July 1772, but he appears without category, as working in "Marylebone", in the Parl. Report list 1773. On 2 July 1777 a Thomas Neale was apprenticed to him, when Cafe is described as "of the same place" as the boy's father, "High Street Marylebone"; on 1 December 1784 his own son Thomas was also apprenticed to him at the same address. Cafe died between 1802 and 1811.