Case 2 (2012-13): A pair of Charles II silver-gilt flagons
Expert Adviser’s Statement
Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to
have not been reproduced on the Arts Council England Website
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Brief description of items
A pair of silver gilt Charles II cylindrical flagons, London, circa 1660-1668, bearing the maker’s mark
‘orb with a cross’ on both bodies and covers, the flagons are both 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) high; their
combined present weight is 261 oz.(8,163 gr.). Supplied in 1668 for the Hon. Ralph Montagu (later
Baron, then 1st Earl and finally 1st Duke of Montagu) as British Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV
for use in celebrating Holy Communion in the chapel attached to the British Embassy, Paris.
The flagons are embossed with a frieze of flowers, foliage and three cherubim, with upper stiff-leaf
border. Each has a hinged, slightly domed cover similarly chased with flowers and cherubim, with a
central floral boss, a scroll handle engraved with the coat-of-arms of Ralph Montagu with a pierced
scroll thumbpiece. The bases bear the inscription ‘Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess Dowr of Buccleuch
and Queensberry 1817’. Both have a scratch weight; one with ‘129-10-0’ and again ‘129-10’ and the
other ‘134=02=12’. The flagons are generally in excellent condition retaining their original gilding;
there is a slight bash to the lid of the heavier of the two.
2.Context
Provenance:
The Hon Ralph Montagu, later 1st Earl and 1st Duke of Montagu (1638-1709); by descent to his
granddaughter Mary Cardigan, Duchess of Montagu (1727-1788) wife of George, 4th Earl of Cardigan
and 1st Duke of Montagu of the 2nd Creation (1712-1790) and daughter of John, 2nd Duke of Montagu
(1690-1749) thence by descent to their daughter Elizabeth Montagu (1743-1827) wife of Henry, 3rd
Duke of Buccleuch and 5th Duke of Queensberry (1746-1812) and thence by descent to their greatgrandson Lord Henry Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (1832-1905); Christie’s
London, 26 May 1905, lots 64 and 65 (£200 and £220 to Harding) R.M.Wood; Christie’s London 28
May 1919 lot 71 (£1,181 to S.J.Phillips); purchased by 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (1866-1929)
and thence by descent; Christie’s London 5 July 2000, lot 245.
3. Waverley Criteria
These silver-gilt communion flagons form part of the allocation of silver in 1668 by the Royal Jewel
House to Ralph Montagu, Charles II’s Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV and meet Waverley
Criterion (2). – they are of outstanding aesthetic importance.
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The Montagu communion flagons meet Waverley criterion (3) – they are of outstanding significance
to the study of the history and development of British silver, the history of diplomatic protocol and
the use of silver to promote the status of the British ambassador abroad and the continued
appreciation of that silver after completion of a diplomatic posting. In particular these communion
flagons symbolize the important role that international diplomacy has played during the early
modern period in promoting freedom of worship through chapels attached to foreign embassies
during times of persecution of particular faiths in the host country.
DETAILED CASE
1. The objects
A pair of silver gilt Charles II cylindrical flagons, London, circa 1660-1668, bearing the maker’s mark
‘orb with a cross’ (fig.1)
The flagons: The cylindrical body of both flagons is raised and embossed with a frieze of flowers,
foliage and three cherubim, with upper stiff-leaf border; the hinged slightly domed covers are
similarly embossed with a central floral boss. The hollow scroll handles are both engraved with the
coat-of-arms of the Hon. Ralph Montagu and have pierced scroll thumbpieces. An earl’s coronet has
been added to the coat-of-arms at a later date (between 1689-1705). In each case the base is
engraved with the inscription ‘ Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess Dowr of Buccleuch & Queensberry,
1817’. One base bears the scratched weight ‘129-10-0’ and 129-10’ ; the other ‘134=02=12’.
Marks: The flagons are marked on both the lids and the sides of the bodies with the maker’s mark
usually identified as ‘an orb with a cross’ .
2. Aesthetic Importance (Waverley 2)
The Maker: ‘orb within a cross’ mark – this mark has been variously described as an orb and star, a
grenade (Crown Jewels, II, p.402) or a wheatsheaf. The use of a device rather than initials suggests
that this is the mark of an ‘alien’ goldsmith working in London. The embossed decoration has been
attributed to Wolfgang Howzer or Houser (working 1652 – 1688; Oman 1970, p.34). Howzer came
originally from Zurich becoming free of the Goldsmiths’ Guild there in 1652 after serving an
apprenticeship with his father Hans Jacob II. In Zurich his name was spelt Husar but in England it is
variously spelt Houser or Howzer. He is first recorded in England in 1657 when he was received into
the Dutch church in Austin Friars, London, on the recommendation of the minister of the church at
Middelburg in Zeland. Howzer made a large set of altar plate for Bishop Cosin’s chapel at Bishop
Auckland, County Durham, in 1660-1. The altar dish and flagon from this set epitomize sophisticated
continental forms and rich embossed decoration although they are marked by Francis Leake (fig.2).
The Bishop’s steward noted of the goldsmith ‘he is a good man but deere’ as his charge for gilt plate
was 9s per oz (Oman, English Church Plate, p.185). Although Howzer supplied silver-gilt for royal use,
he never received an official appointment from the Lord Chamberlain and initially relied on leading
native goldsmiths Francis Leake and Henry Greenway to mark his work.
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The ‘orb within a cross’ maker’s mark, attributed to Howzer, appears on the grandest ecclesiastical
and secular silver commissioned on the restoration of the monarchy for Charles II. This includes a
silver-gilt basin hallmarked for London 1660-1, with a celebrated provenance. It descended in the
British Royal Family; was sold to Rundell Bridge and Rundell in 1808; was subsequently purchased by
William Beckford, sold at the Fonthill Abbey Sale 2 October 1823 lot 824 and then acquired by Prince
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. It was sold again at Christie’s after that Duke’s death (23 June
1843 lot 305) when it was described as ‘an ancient English circular dish, with the rose and crown in
the centre, four of the labours of Hercules in medallions round it and military trophies on the border’
weighing 108 oz (fig.3). The basin was then acquired by Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1808-79)
and passed through the collections of Leopold de Rothschild (1845-1917) and Anthony de Rothschild
(1887-1961). The basin was reacquired for the British Royal Collection in 1940 by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth the Queen Mother (Royal Treasures: A Golden Jubilee Celebration, ed. Jane Roberts, 2002,
no.172. RCIN 100007). Wolfgang Howzer is also credited with the chased decoration on the
magnificent dish which adorned the high altar of Westminster Abbey for Charles II’s Coronation in
1661 (fig.4) subsequently part of the altar plate of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace (RCIN 92012).
Howzer is also associated with the embossed decoration on a very similar dish bearing the arms of
the Duke of York, later James II, and probably supplied for the Duke’s private chapel in the Palace of
Whitehall in 1664. This bears the maker’s mark for Henry Greenway (Crown Jewels 1998, II, pp.4335; Anna Keay, The Crown Jewels, 2011, p.193; RCIN 31745). In addition to these spectacular altar
dishes attributed to Howzer, a pair of communion flagons, 1660-1 (illustrated Keay, pp.84; 88-9) are
similarly lavishly chased with flowers and foliage with a Tudor rose surmounted by a royal crown;
they also bear the mark of Henry Greenway and may have been decorated by Howzer (RCIN
31750.1-2). The same goldsmith supplied the set of four state salts made for the Feast of the Order
of the Garter each crowned with the figure of St George (H.M.Jewel House, Tower of London,
Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1990, p.285).
By 1664 Howzer had registered a mark of his own at Goldsmiths’ Hall, ‘HW above a cherub’. This
suggests that, if the attribution to Howzer is correct, the pair of flagons under consideration may
date from 1660-1664 and may have been supplied to Ralph Montagu for his embassy to Paris in
1669 from existing stock held at the Royal Jewel House. Howzer is still recorded in London in 1681
when he employed English workmen as well as his nephew Hans Heinrich but there are no further
records of Howzer’s presence in London after 1688.
Rarity of the pieces and significance for scholarship (Waverley 3)
Ralph Montagu’s embassy to Paris is well documented. Charles II sent Montagu as an envoy on a
five-month mission from October 1662 to February 1663 to seek closer co-operation with France
(ODNB). Six years later, Montagu was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to France on 1 January
1669. A diary of his first embassy survives in the Beinecke Library, Yale University (James Marshall
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and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection). It covers the period 29 Nov 1669 – 26 June 1671, is written in
French and English and covers diplomatic, social, political and commercial affairs in Europe. Ralph
Montagu’s obituary The Court in Mourning being the Life and Worthy Actions of Ralph Duke of
Montagu, 1709, records the
‘very splendid Train with which he sail’d for France … where he was received with great
Magnificence, and a vast Equipage was preparing for him to make his Publik Entry which he did on
25th April, in most splendid manner, that the like had never been seen in France before since the
Duke of Buckingham’s Embassy when he went to demand in Marriage, for his Master King Charles
the First, the Lady Henrietta Maria, the French King’s Daughter.
Two days after he was admitted to his first and publick Audience, which for a distinguishing Mark of
Honour he had in his Most Christian Majesty’s Bed-Chamber, and even within the Rails round the
Bed where the King stood to receive him. The king sent him his Picture set with Diamonds and
several other Rich Presents; in which the Ambassador made the King a Present of 9 very fine English
Horses.’
A contemporary Huguenot historian who settled in London, Abel Boyer, wrote of Montagu’s
embassy on 25th April 1669 ‘his publick Entry in Paris was so Magnificent that it has scarce ever been
since equalled. He rode in the State Coach of the King of France and was accompanied by more than
a hundred attendants riding in Four Rich Coaches with Eight Horses each and Two Chariots with six,
made as fine and as costly as Art and Workmen could contrive’. Whenever Ralph Montagu visited
Versailles, Louis XIV ordered the fountains to be played. It was at Versailles that his grace formed his
Ideas in his own Mind, both of Buildings and Gardening’. The embassy flagons are thus an important
part of the material culture recording the exceptionally well documented ambassadorial missions
undertaken by Ralph Montagu in Paris in the 1660s and 1670s. These years coincided with the
growing persecution of the Huguenots in France. Montagu, impressed by the encouragement given
to the arts by French royal patronage, befriended French artists, craftsmen and designers in Paris
during his diplomatic postings with a view to encouraging them to come to London where his
patronage attracted British royal attention. In Paris, Huguenots welcomed the opportunity to attend
Protestant services at foreign embassy chapels, just as in London, foreign Catholic immigrants
attended the chapels of the Bavarian, Portuguese, Sardinian and Spanish embassies.
These flagons are a unique survival of embassy chapel plate supplied from London for use on the
European continent during the reign of Charles II to promote the status of the newly restored British
monarchy. In the later reign of George IV, another London goldsmith, Joseph Angell, supplied in
1825, a set of silver-gilt communion plate consisting of two flagons, two covered communion cups,
four raised patens and ‘I spoon to take the flies out of the wine’ for the use of the chapel attached to
the British Embassy in Paris. This retains its original travelling chest with the label ‘His Britannick
Majestys Embassy at the Court of France. Chapel Plate.’ (fig. 5) (Mary Beale and John Cornforth, The
British Embassy, Paris: The House and its Works of Art, 1992, pp.38-9. This remains in the British
Embassy, Paris and is still occasionally used in the service of Holy Communion in the British Embassy
church, St Michael’s, Paris.
Provenance: Documentary evidence in the records of the Royal Jewel House for the supply of silver
and silver gilt for Ralph Montagu’s embassy is confirmed by a parchment fragment which survives in
the archives of the present Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry at Boughton House,
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Northamptonshire. This records ‘20th day of January (in the ) 20(th) year of Reign of Charles II 1668
Between the Right Hon. Ralph Montagu Esq. Ambassador Extraordinary from his Matie to the French
King of the one part and Sir Gilbert Talbot Knt Maister & Treasurer of his Maties Jewells & Plate of
the other part witnesseth that the sayd Ralph Montagu hath received of the sayd Sir Gilbert Talbot
five thousand nine hundred and sixty-six ounces three quarters & an halfe white silver plate & nine
hundred ninety-three ounces three quarters in gilt plate in these parcels hereafter mentioned for
the service of his Chappell & household during his sayd Ambassage & at the Expiration thereof to
return the sayd plate unto his Maties Jewell house.
Two gilt chased Flaggon & one gilt chased Bason 0427 oz 2 qr
Twelve French fashioned gilt Candlesticks armes graven 86 oz 2-6
Two gilt Challices cover & Pattens with eight ar: gr:
One gilt chased salver & cupps & cover
….candlesticks French
salvers’
As the combined weight of the flagons was originally 264 oz., the accompanying chased basin
weighed approximately 163 oz. and was similarly elaborately chased. It is not known whether the
accompanying basin survives. Montagu was appointed ambassador-extraordinary to the court of
Louis XIV again in 1676 and again in 1677, but following a bitter quarrel with the Charles II’s mistress
Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleveland, he left his post on 1 July 1678 without leave of the king. On
his return from France, Montagu re-established his homes at Montagu House, Bloomsbury; Ditton
House, Buckinghamshire and Boughton House, Northamptonshire.
The contents of the chapel at Boughton are listed in a partial inventory dated 16 January 1683/4 and
included ‘ a great Bible & a Common prayer Book, 11 large Cushens, a Pulpit Cushen and 2 small
Cushens’. The embassy chapel plate including the two silver-gilt flagons under consideration are
probably included in the summary of ‘1516 oz 16 dwt of Guilt Plate’ valued by the London goldsmith
George Lewis on 28th March 1709 as at Montagu House, Bloomsbury after Ralph Montagu’s death.
By 1728 the embassy chapel silver may be identified with ‘Two large gilt Dishes; Two flagons
belonging to them; Two gilt Cups with Covers for the Sacrament’ in the 10 March 1728 ‘Account of
Plate in James Montagu the Butler’s Keeping’ compiled on 10th March that year and again in the
1733 listing of the contents of Montagu House, Bloomsbury as ‘Two large gilt dishes; Two flagons
belonging to them; Two gilt cups with covers for ye Sacrmt’. By 1746 the same pieces are recorded
at Montagu House, Whitehall as ‘2 large gilt dishes, 2 Flagons belonging to them, 2 Gilt cups with
covers for the Sacrament’ (T.Murdoch, Noble Households, 2006, pp..). It is not clear when an
additional large gilt dish was acquired and associated with the ambassadorial communion set.
Christie’s sale catalogue London, 26 May 1905, indicates that 1st Baron Montagu of Beaulieu sold
two James I standing cups and covers sold as well as the two Charles II flagons (one cup and cover
was described as gilt, this sold for £1350 and the other as silver-gilt, this sold for £1,600). Bought by
Mr Letts, believed to be a dealer, both realised more than the flagons which went for £200 and £220
to Mr Harding, another dealer. These cups and covers may well be ‘the two gilt cups with covers for
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the Sacrament’ supplied by the Jewel House in 1668. The inscription ‘Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess
Dowr of Buccleuch and Queensberry 1817’ on the underside of the flagon may be explained by the
presence of a similar inscription on a silver-gilt dish previously described as an altar paten which is
also engraved with the Montagu coat of arms and a baron’s coronet. This unmarked silver-gilt dish,
of dinner plate proportions (10 3/8 in diameter) is chased with chinoiserie decoration of trees,
flowers, birds, insects and pagodas. The inscription on the underside ‘Given to Ditton Chapel by
Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess Dowr of Buccleuch and Queensberry, 1817’, suggests that the silver gilt
Communion flagons under consideration were given at the same time by the dowager duchess for
the use of Ditton Chapel.
The items sold in 1905 would seem to have been part of the Ditton Park estate inherited by Henry,
Lord Montagu after his mother’s death in 1895, but there is nothing in the Ditton records preserved
at Palace House Beaulieu to confirm this. 1817 is the date when repairs following the 1812 fire at
Ditton were said to have been completed.
Bibliography
Abel Boyer, History of the Life and Reign of Queen Anne, 1722
The Court in Mourning being the Life and Worthy Actions of Ralph Duke of Montagu, 1709
Royal Treasures: A Golden Jubilee Celebration, ed. Jane Roberts, 2002
Mary Beale and John Cornforth, The British Embassy, Paris: The House and its Works of Art, 1992
Claude Blair, The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia in the Jewel House of the
Tower of London, London 1998, 2 vols
Philippa Glanville, Silver in Tudor and Early Stuart England, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1990
Philippa Glanville, ‘Boughton Silver’ in Boughton House, The English Versailles, ed. T.Murdoch,
London, 1992, pp.152-157
Anna Keay, The Crown Jewels, London, 2011
E.Metzger, Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, ODNB, accessed 26 June 2012
http://oxforddnb/com/19030
Tessa Murdoch, Noble Households, Eighteenth Century Inventories of Great English Houses,
Cambridge, 2006
Charles Oman, English Church Plate 597-1830, Oxford, 1957
Charles Oman, Caroline Silver, London, 1970
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I would like to thank Ralph Montagu and Susan Tomkins, Archivist of Palace House, Beaulieu and
Gareth Fitzpatrick at Boughton House, Northamptonshire for their assistance with research.
Illustrations
Figure 1 A pair of silver gilt Charles II cylindrical flagons, London, circa 1660-1668, maker’s mark ‘orb
with a cross’ attributed to Wolfgang Howzer, combined weight 161 ozs.
Figure 2. The altar dish and flagon from the set of altar plate for Bishop Cosin’s chapel at Bishop
Auckland, County Durham, 1660-1, marked by Francis Leake, with embossed decoration attributed
to Wolfgang Howzer
Figure 3 Altar basin, London, 1660-1, maker’s mark ‘orb with a cross’ attributed to Wolfgang
Howzer weight 108 oz., The Royal Collection
Figure 4 Altar dish, London, 1660-1, no maker’s mark attributed to Henry Greenaway and Wolfgang
Howzer, 94.5 cms diameter, The Royal Collection
Figure 5 Silver gilt communion plate supplied by Joseph Angell, London, 1825 with its original chest,
The British Embassy, Paris
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