Francis Nelme An Elegant Pair of George II Silver-Gilt Salvers

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Silver-Gilt
London, 1728
Maker’s mark of Francis Nelme

Diameter: 15 cm, 5.9 in.
Weight: 455 gr., 16 oz.
 

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Literature

Michael Clayton, Christie's Pictorial History of English and American Silver (Phaidon, Christie's: Oxford, 1985) pp. 154, 170.

Silversmith Biography

Francis, son of Anthony Nelme Citizen and Goldsmith of London, apprenticed to his father 6 March 1712. Free, 9 April 1719. Livery, October 1721. First mark entered below his father's undated large mark with the note, 'Francis Nelme the same marks March 20:1723'. Second mark, 19 June 1739. Address: Ave Mary Lane, 1721; London 1722-27; St. Martin's Ludgate, 1736; and London, 1739-59. From the nature of pieces on which his mark survives, Francis Nelme does not appear to have retained the more important clients for whom his father worked, nor has mark survived with the same frequency.

Description

Pie-crust border with three hoof feet, reverse with assay scrape. Flat centre with strapwork engraved decoration encompassing shells, medallions with busts, and festoons with flowers. Engraved with widows’ lozenge of Venatti impaling Tooke inside a foliate cartouche with shells.