Master Art

The arms are those of CLEVE, of Walford, county Salop, CLEVE or CLIVE, of Huxley, county Chester; of the CLIVES of Styche; the heiress married Wilbraham. William CLEAVE, Alderman of London, died 1667, CLEVE or CLIVE, London. Arms: Argent, on a fess between three wolves’ heads erased sable, as many mullets or. (Reference: Papworth’s Ordinary of British Armorials page 826 & Burke’s General Armory, page 205.) Shaped circular, the double ogee border applied with eight masks at intervals, the border with a rim of flowerheads and bead-and-reel, on four openwork scroll legs with shell feet, field finely engraved with a coat-of-arms within an elaborate cartouche with figures of a shepherd and shepherdess, herms, putti, grapevine and flowers. With scratchweight ‘106..15’.

An identical cartouche, attributed by Charles Oman to Joseph Sympson, appears on a salver of 1733, maker's mark of Thomas Farren, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, illustrated in English Engraved Silver, 1150-1900, 1978, p. 90, fig. 103. A small number of objects survive with engraving signed by Sympson, much of it in vastly differing style, suggesting that he ran one of the most successful engraving workshops in London during this period. An "S. Sympson" (probably Joseph's son or nephew) published A New Book of Cyphers, More Compleat & Regular than ever Publish'd in 1726 (see Christopher Hartop, "Engraving on English Silver", Antiques, February, 1997, p. 343).

Weight: 3,291 g, 105 oz 10 dwt