Objects
Cup- Coffee
Caffeine
Consumption
Silver bowl and saucer, the bowl with a round foot and spreading hexagonal rim, the saucer with a round foot and hexagonal rim. Engraved on the side of the bowl and in the centre of the saucer with the arms of Broughton or Legge on a lozenge.
[bowl] Silver the bowl with a round foot and spreading hexagonal rim, the arms of Broughton or Legge on a lozenge engraved on one side.
[saucer] Silver, the saucer with a round foot and hexagonal rim. The arms of Broughton or Legge engraved in the centre of the saucer.
Arms: azure (blue), a buck's head caboched (ie. full-faced and showing no part of the neck) argent (silver) on a lozenge.
[bowl] Arms: azure (blue), a buck's head caboched (ie. full-faced and showing no part of the neck) argent (silver) on a lozenge.
[saucer] Arms: azure (blue), a buck's head caboched (ie. full-faced and showing no part of the neck) argent (silver) on a lozenge.
The bowl and saucer are unmarked, and nothing is known of their maker. The composition of the silver of the saucer was analysed by spectroscopy at the London assay office in 1984, and found to be below sterling standard. The impurities were consistent with a 1600-1700 date, and the high copper content was consistent with provincial silver produced during this period. (See Metalwork section departmental records).
The arms on the bowl and saucer are difficult to identify with certainty. The Broughton (or Browton) family do not appear to be well-recorded; the Legge family, as Earls of Dartmouth, are better chronicled. The lozenge-shaped shield which bears the arms engraved on the bowl and saucer is a form used to denote arms belonging to a woman . However, the lack of any additional crest or motto make positive identification of these arms impossible.
This is a rare survival of an early tea bowl and saucer, and is particularly interesting because it is made of silver. The heat-conducting properties of silver, coupled with the gradual increase in porcelain imports, meant that early silver tea bowls were often melted down and refashioned. This example imitates similar bowls of Chinese porcelain.
Production
Dates of Production: circa 1710
England
Consumer
Broughton
female
Gentlewoman
Materials
Metal- plate
Metal- silver
Museological Details
Bowl and saucer
V&A museum
M.230&A-1930
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