A George III Silver Basket by John Wakelin and William Taylor, London, 1780, tapering circular...

A George III Silver Basket by John Wakelin and William Taylor, London, 1780, tapering circular and with twisted wirework sides above cast woven border, with overhead twisted swing handle, the base engraved with a crest, the outside of the base engraved on each side with a motto, 28cm diameter, 25cm high, 40oz 3dwt

The crest is described in Fairbairn's Book of Crests as 'a demi-eagle displayed with two heads sa. [sable], ducally gorged or [aurum], charged on the breast with a cross crosslet, arg. [argent]' and recorded as being that used by the Bouverie and De Bouverie families. The most likely candidate is a member of the Pleydell-Bouverie family who were the Earls of Radnor. Radnor was certainly a client of note of Parker and Wakelin, the predecessors to Wakelin and Taylor who made the present basket. We know this through a series of ledgers which were discovered in the 1950s are are now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The ledgers have been researched by Dr Helen Clifford and a section of the ledgers, covered the years 1767-1770 is reproduced on the website of The Silver Society. During that period there are some 35 records of transactions between the Earl of Parker and Wakelin, everything from 'mend pr tea tongs' on 4 April 1767 to supplying '4 oval gadroon dishes', weighing 81oz 1dwt on 16 March 1769.

If the basket was from the family of the Earl of Radnor it would have been in good company as baskets of this form would seem to have popular with other aristocratic patrons in the late 18th century with examples known which are engraved with the arms of Henry, Marquess of Worcester, later Duke of Beaufort (Sotheby's, London, 26 April 2008, lot 283); Thomas, Viscount Weymouth, later Marquess of Bath (Christie's, London, 13 June 2002) and Henry, Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (Christie's, 26 November 2013, lot 449).