Made in London 1681 by the maker MK – a maker’s mark which is unidentified, but recorded in the third revised edition of English Goldsmiths And Their Marks by Charles Jackson, on a tankard of the same date – this small vessel weighs 13oz and is decorated with reeded edge and serrated
decoration to the front together with an engraved contemporary lady’s armorial in lozenge and plumed mantling. It was in good overall condition and had acquired a fine patination: an important consideration in silver of this date.
Estimated at £3500-5000, it sold to a commission bid left by a London dealer at £5500: the same price tendered for an Elizabeth I (and later) oak tester bed, 5ft 3in wide by 6ft high (1.6 x 1.83m) with a headboard having a frieze of carved
palmettes flanking a shield bearing the date 1624.
Enough to slake many a thirst . . .
UK: ABOUT 30 years ago a local private lady purchased this 5.2in (13cm) high Charles II flat-lidded silver tankard, pictured right, for £6 at a Cumbrian jumble sale: a generation later, having realised its potential worth, she decided to place the vessel into the hands of the Cumbrian auctioneers Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s (10 per cent buyer’s premium) for their sale on September 29.
