William Cafe

Four George II Candlesticks

William Cafe

Four George II Candlesticks

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+44 (0)20 7242 7624

By William Cafe
London, 1759

10 1/4 in. (26 cm.) high, 80 oz. 3 dwt. (2,493 gr.)

Each on square base with gadrooned rim, the baluster stem with gadrooned knop, terminating in a spool-shaped socket with detachable square nozzle, the bases engraved with a crest, marked under bases, on sockets and three nozzles,

SILVERSMITH 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.