Nest of Four Beakers with Cover

Artists

Description

Each beaker of slightly tapering cylindrical form applied at the shoulder with a band of reeding; three on cast spreading bases, the largest of stepped domed form with multi-baluster finial rising from a cast flat fluted calyx; all engraved with a coat of arms and Earl's coronet within a crossed plume mantling, the cover engraved with a crest and Earl's coronet, the front of the largest beaker with scratch weight 30=18=1/2. The arms are those of Tufton impaling those of Boyle, for Nicholas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanel, born in 1631, who was married and succeeded to the Earldom in the year this nest of beakers was made. His father, the 2nd Earl, was a staunch Royalist and in April, 1643 he escaped to France, taking his son with him. He returned the following year and thereafter "submitted willingly to Government". His son appears to have stayed on the Continent but he is recorded as staying with his grandmother, Lady Anne Clifford, at Skipton Castle in 1650. After this, he travelled "in Italy to Rome and to other places abroad". While his father appears to have made his peace with the Parliamentary side, his son was imprisoned in the Tower in 1655 and again in September 1656 to June 1658 on suspicion of being involved in Royalist plots. He married Elizabeth Boyle, 2nd daughter of Richard, 1st Earl of Burlington. His town house, Thanet House, escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666. Lady Thanet wrote to her mother on September 12, "the nearest that it came to my house was Surgeon's Hall on the backside my garden, which is burnt down to the ground."The 3rd Earl died in 1679 but his widow lived to the age of 88 and died in 1725. (See "Complete Peerage") Each beaker of slightly tapering cylindrical form applied at the shoulder with a banc of reeding; three on cast spreading bases, the largest of stepped domed form with multi-baluster finial rising from a cast flat fluted calyx; all engraved with a coat of arms and Earl's coronet within a crossed plume mantling, the cover engraved with a crest and Earl's coronet, the front of the largest beaker with scratch weight 30=18=1/2

Dimensions

when assembled: 26.6 × 8.6 cm (10 1/2 × 3 3/8 in.) 961 g

Provenance

Nicolas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanet (1631-1679) and Elizabeth, née Boyle [1], London. Miss Coats of Fergusite House sold [through her sale, Christie's, London, May 6, 1903, lot 67]; to Mallett. J. C. Butterwick, sold [through Sotheby's, London, May 30, 1935, lot 164. William Randolph Hearst, London, sold [through Sotheby's, London, November 17, 1937, lot 83. Archibald Alexander Hutchinson, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1949. [1] Nicolas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanet married Elizabeth, second daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington on April 11, 1661 and succeeded to the earldom on May 7, 1664.