Doyle, New York, May 14, 2008, lot 1243;
Private Collection, Greensboro, North Carolina

Charles Howard, 10th Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal (1 December 1720 – 31 August 1786), was an English peer and politician. He was the son of Henry Charles Howard (d. 10 June 1720) and Mary Aylward (d. 7 October 1747). His grandfather, Charles Howard, was a brother of Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk and Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk and therefore another son of the 15th Earl of Arundel. He married Katherine Brockholes (d. 21 November 1784), daughter of John Brockholes, on 8 November 1739, and succeeded to the title of Duke of Norfolk in 1777 after the death of his cousin Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk.

Charles Howard died on 31 August 1786, at age 65, and was succeeded by his son Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk.
 

Charles Kandler's life and career are certainly an enigma. It has been suggested by several commentators that there were in fact two or three Kandlers, owing to the fact that a variety of marks were listed sequentially under the names of Charles Kandler (1727), Charles Frederick Kandler (1735), and Frederick Kandler (after 1739 until 1776). Moreover, all three of these names were registered at the same address at St. James's continuously from 1735 to 1773. It is possible, and indeed likely, that the marks were used by one or two goldsmiths, perhaps a father and son, who were inconsistent in their use of first names. In regard to the elaborate decoration and high degree of plasticity of the silver bearing these marks, stylistic continuity is certainly apparent. These characteristics have tended to reinforce a hypothetical connection with the modeller Johann Joachin Kändler of the Meissen porcelain manufactory. Kandler furnished quantities of elaborate plate to the nobility, most notably the earls of Bristol. His mark can be found on the largest of all surviving wine cisterns (8,000 ounces), dated 1734-35 and now in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (Hernmarck 1977, pl. 284).