The Charles Mercer Ewer

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Silver-Gilt
Charles II
London 1667
Maker’s mark ‘HW’, an escallop below, for Henry Welch

Height: 23cm, 9in.
Weight: 914g, 29oz 5dwt

Literature

Jewel Office records of warrants to the Master of the Jewel Office, Public Record Office, LC5/107, p. 119. (dish)

Description

The ewer on pedestal foot, the body engraved with a coat-of-arms within a plume cartouche above cut-card trefoils, harp-shaped handle.

The arms are those of Mercer impaling Stewart for Sir James Mercer of Aldie, a burgess of Perth, who married in 1648, Jean eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Stewart of Grantully.

Sir James Mercer, whose London house was in Axe Yard, Westminster (where Samuel Pepys had lived between August 1658 and July 1660), was appointed Gentleman Usher to Charles II in January 1661.