The Treaty of Ryswick commemorative pewter porringer and cov...

Hammer

£4,900

The Treaty of Ryswick commemorative pewter porringer and cover: an exceptional English piece of pewter, circa 1697-1722

The cover cast-decorated with the royal cypher ‘WR’ below a crown, for William III, military trophies and celebratory scenes, along with four medallions, each with an allegorical figure individually labelled VALOUR, CONDUCT, CONCORDIA and PEACE, the vacant centre stamped with ownership initials ’TH’, along with three upright cockerels, which act as supports for the lid to be inverted and serve as a stand, the porringer with twin-ears, bellied bowl and boss base, the boss reputedly cast with JOHN CHURCHILL, FIRST DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, (1650-1722), designed standing, in statesman-like dress and pose, his right hand holding a flail, the thongs entwined to reputedly spell RYSWICK, in his left a banner, inscribed TO EUROPE PEACE I GIVE LET NATIONS HAPPY UNITE, the remarkable handles designed as paired dolphins and scrolls around a vacant shield, height including lid 9.5cm, height of porringer 5.5cm, width overall 28.5cm, porringer diameter 15.5cm.

The various treaties of Ryswick (or Rijswick) were signed in the Dutch city of Rijswick between 20 September and 30 October 1697, thereby ending the ’Nine Years’ War’ (1688-1697) between France and the expansionist ambitions of King Louis XIV and the 'Grand Alliance’, which included the Dutch Republic, England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Savoy, Spain, Portugal and Sweden. John Churchill had commanded English troops in The Low Countries and Ireland during the Nine Years War

For an identical lidded pewter porringer see The Colonial Williamsburg Museum, Virginia, USA, acc. no. 1965-96 a&b.

Literature: John D. Davis, ‘Pewter At Colonial Williamsburg’ (2003), p. 153-154, item no. 184. The author notes that 'one of the most remarkable bodies of work in English pewter is the group of approximately twenty known commemorative porringers from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries’.  See also R.F. Michaelis ‘More English Commemorative Pewter Porringers’, The Magazine Antiques, July 160, p. 52-53 and p.118. See also 'English Commemorative Porringers', The Journal of the Pewter Society, Spring 2103, pp.19-34, which lists 21 recorded lidded and decorated commemorative porringers. Page 21, Table 1, lists five recorded lidded porringers with the Treaty of Ryswick cast to the boogie. The aforementioned Williamsburg example, another in the Neish Collection, Stirling Smith Museum, no.44/472; one in the Werowinski Collection; the fourth in the Worshipful Company of Pewterers Collection (S5/501/1);  and the fifth whereabouts unknown, but formerly lent to the Smithsonian. The fourth and fifth examples bear the maker's mark 'AW', (PS10470), which may refer to Anthony Waters (1685-1720), (PS9804); Abraham Wiggin (1707-?), (PS10120) or Allen Walley (1668-?) (PS9742), The Neish and Werowinski examples are, like this Lot, unmarked.

Although this Lot has no maker’s mark, the identical Williamsburg lidded porringer bears the touchmark of John Langford I, London, (fl.1719-1730), (PS5662). Since Langford did not commence work until 1719, this Lot may have been made post 1697, possibly in 1722, to commemorate Marlborough’s death (?). To an extent this is intelligible as Marlborough's greatest military achievements came later in his career. His role in ending the Nine Years War, compared to Blenheim (1704) for example, was not particularly significant at the time; Ryswick was perhaps seen retrospectively as the beginning of an outstanding military career and Marlborough’s later status as a national hero. Certainly Ryswick historically proved a turning point for William III, his stature and influence in Europe grew, placing him on (a somewhat) equal footing to his rival Louis XIV, which would make sense of its use on an English Commemorative porringer, later in the 18th century.  However, and importantly, if the porringer dates from soon after the signing of the Ryswick Treaty (1697) John Churchill was currently out of favour with the King and played no part in the peace negotiations; the standing figure should not be the Duke of Marlborough, but rather William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, who successfully negotiated the Treaty for William.  The porringer may simply have been sold circa 1700, to commemorate a new century, whilst depicting an historical event important at the time. (?) With reference to the John Langford example, it is questionable if a new mould commemorating the Treaty of Ryswick would be made during the reign of George I, as greater historical events had occurred by then (?). It may, however, be plausible Langford used an old mould, with a statesman-like figure that could pass as John Churchill to commemorate his death in 1722.