Set 18 Silver "Lord Lucan" Soup Plates, London 1819
£17,750.00
Soup Plates (18) - Circular with Gadroon mounts - London 1819 by Benjamin Smith (rims marked London 1842 by Daniel and Charles Houle) - 25.5cm diameter; 12,640g - PB/4632
This is a stunning straight set of George III period silver soup plates with an interesting provenance relating to the infamous Lord Lucan.
These eighteen soup plates have a shaped circular form with gadroon rims and have a hefty feeling of very high quality with an amazing combined weight of over 400 tr.oz (12.6kg)! They were made by the premier silversmith Benjamin Smith III who was a supplier to the royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge & Rundell. The rims were modified at a later date and have been re-hallmarked accordingly for London 1842 by Daniel and Charles Houle.
The borders of each plate have been engraved with the crest of Earl Lucan and once belonged to John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan who disappeared in 1974 after being suspected of murder. This was huge news in the UK throughout the seventies, but he was never found and was declared dead in 2016.
The Lucan crest can be described as: On a Mound Vert, a Falcon rising wings expanded proper, armed membered and belled Or.
The plates would originally been commissioned by Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan (1764-1839) and probably modified by his son George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan (1800-1888).
Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan married Lady Elizabeth Belasyse in 1794 and was an Irish peer and Tory politician. George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan was known as "The Exterminator" on account of his ruthless mass evictions from Irish villages during the Great Famine of the 1840's. He was also an officer in the British Army and along with Captain Nolan and Lord Raglan was responsible for the fateful order in 1854 at the Battle of Balaclava that lead to the Earl of Cardigan's disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade. The Earl of Cardigan was his detested brother-in-law. Years later he was promoted to Field Marshall.
Provenance: The Earl of Lucan. Purchased by a branch of the same family in 1974, and thence by descent until sold at auction in 2010.
See Wikipedia for extensive information on John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan
