Philip Rundell (1743 - 1827) A Magnificent Four-Piece Tea & Coffee Service on Tray

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Silver
London, 1822-23
Maker’s mark of Phillip Rundell
Total weight: 8,740g, 281oz
Length of tray: 73cm, 28.7in
With contemporary coat-of-arms, crest and motto ‘Pro Rege et Lege’

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Provenance

 
This tea and coffee service was in the possession of Edward Rose Tunno (baptised 26th November 1794 died 8th March 1863), of Llangennech Park, in the County of Carmarthenshire. Edward was the son of John Tunno, a Merchant and an Underwriter, of Old Jewry in the City of London and his wife, Margaret Rose. He was educated at Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Edward thereafter appeared to pursue a career in the law having been called to the bar at the Lincoln’s Inn in 1823. 
Although the Tunno family’s origin are said to be obscure it is stated that they were Scottish and had originally hailed from Kelso in the County of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders. Edward married Carloine Raikes, daughter of Job Matthew Raikes, a partner in the London banking of Raikes & Company at the Parish Church of St George’s Hanover Square in the County of Middlesex on the 8th October 1825. He sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Bossiney in the County of Cornwall from 1826 until 1832 when the seat was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. Apart from his estate at Llangennech Park in Carmarthenshire for which county he served as Sheriff for the year 1835 – 36, Edward also owned Warnford Park in the County of Hampshire, as well as a London town house at 19 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair in the County of Middlesex. 
The Tunno family also had connections with Charleston in the Colony of South Carolina in British North America where his paternal grandparents, George Tunno and Mary Dickson who were married around the year 1745 had a plantation and other interests at Charleston. Certainly other members of the Tunno family also had connections with Charleston both before and, it would seem, after the American War of Independence. 
Edward was granted armorial bearings by the Kings of Arms at The College of Arms in the City of London in 1824. The arms and crest for Tunno also included a quartering for the family of Dickson. It would appear that Edward had used an unofficial (i.e. self assumed) version of these arms as an armorial book stamp as shown here to the left. It may be that his growing status both in Wales and London, together with his forthcoming marriage to Caroline acted as was a spur for him the regularise his arms. 

 

Silversmith Biography

Son of Thomas Rundell doctor of Widcombe Bath, born 1743. Apprenticed to William Rodgers jeweller of Bath on payment of £20. Arrived in London, 1767 or 1769, as a shopman to Theed and Pickett, Ludgate Hill, at a salary of £20 p.a.. Made partner with Picket in 1772 and acquired sole ownership of the business in 1785-6. Took John Bridge into partnership in 1788 and his nephew Edmund Walter Rundell by 1803, the firm being styled Rundell Bridge and Rundell from 1805. Appointed Goldsmith and Jeweller to the King in 1797, due it is said, to George III's acquaintanceship with John Bridge's relative, a farmer near Weymouth. He took Paul Storr into working partnership in 1807, an arrangement that lasted until 1819, when the latter gained independence. Only then was Rundell's mark entered as plateworker, 4th March, 1819. Address: 76 Dean Street, Soho, (the workshop). In 1823 John Bridge enters his first mark and it seems probable therefore that it was about this time that Rundell retired. He did not die however until 1827, leaving his fortune of 1.25 million to his nephew Joseph Neeld.

Description

The tray on four feet with a shell and gadrooned border, scrolling acanthus leaf handles and centre engraved with a coat-of-arms. The four piece service also engraved with the same coat of arms and crest. The service half fluted and decorated with ivy tendrils, leaves and flowers.