A rare Charles II pewter finely reeded broad rim 'marriage' plate, engraved with arms, by Henry Hartwell I, London [fl.1633-1665], circa 1662
A rare Charles II pewter finely reeded broad rim 'marriage' plate, engraved with arms, by Henry Hartwell I, London [fl.1633-1665], circa 1662
4485
The rim with mantled crest of the Langham family, Northants, opposite the marriage arms of Langham impaling Hastings [the Hastings's arms is a lady's bent-arm sleeve], four maker's hallmarks to the rim front and touch to rear, (PS4456), diameter 10in, 253mm; rim 2in, 51mm, (40.5%)
Provenance:
Originally part of a service ordered by Sir James Langham, Baronet and MP, from pewterer Henry Hartwell, in preparation for his wedding on the 18 November, 1662, to his second wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Ferdinando Hastings, 6th Earl of Huntingdon, who brought a considerable dowry of £10,000.
Sir James [b.1621] was the son and heir of Sir John Langham from Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, [b.1584], later of Cottesbrooke Hall, MP and Lord Mayor of London, a fervent Royalist, Presbyterian and a 'parliamentary Puritan', who made his fortune as a Turkey merchant and was made a baronet by Charles II as early as 1660 whilst in the Hague. After their marriage in 1662, James and Elizabeth resided at Cottesbrooke Hall and at the Langhams' London home, Crosby Place, Bishopsgate, where Sir John also lived. Within two years of the marriage, the pregnant Elizabeth died of smallpox in 1664. An account of her 'exemplary piety' was included in Samuel Clarke's 'The Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons' (1683). Sir James died in 1699 aged 78 and his father in May, 1671, aged 87.
It is also possible that the pewter service was ordered with the new arms of Sir John after his elevation to a baronetcy in 1660, which would explain the single arms on the plate, with the impaled arms of Langham and Hastings added two years later, as part of a wedding garnish.
Henry Hartwell I died in 1665/6 and his business was inherited by his son, Henry Hartwell II. It is apparent that both pewterers supplied pewter to the Langham household over a period of time. When Henry Hartwell II died in 1672 he was owed £17 1s 6d by Sir James Langham, [inventory of the Court of Infants records, London Metropolitan Archives].
Literature: This plate, along with the marks and engravings, discussed 'Journal of the Pewter Society', Autumn 2006, pp.31-35.
Dimensions: