This exceptional antique sterling silver three piece tea service consists of a teapot, cream jug and sugar bowl.
Each piece has an oval rounded compressed form on to a collet base and four bracket style feet.
The body of each piece is embellished with chased flower and foliate decoration incorporating a shaped cartouche to either side, each displaying a contemporary bright cut engraved crest of a mower with his scythe proper habited*.
The upper rim of each piece is encompassed with a gadroon decorated border.
The swept shoulders and the swan necked spout of the teapot are further ornamented with chased floral and scrolling leaf decoration.
The original hinged hallmarked cover of the teapot is surmounted with a silver flower and leaf decorated finial.
The teapot is fitted with a C scroll sterling silver handle ornamented with an impressive leaf design incorporated into a scrolling thumbpiece.
The cream jug and sugar bowl have leaf decorated sterling silver C scroll handles and retain the original gilt interiors.
Each piece is supported by four impressive bracket style feet accented with floral and paw ornamentation in the classic Regency style.
The components of this exceptional antique teaware set were crafted by the renowned London silversmith Charles Thomas Fox.
* The crest pertains to the Pilkington family, who are found in the Counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, although other families bearing the name are found further afield and a similar crest. Whether these families are genealogically connected is not known. The Pilkingtons, of Rivington in the County of Lancashire are probably the more ancient and senior line. Legend has it that a member of the family (which was said to be one of repute prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066) disguised himself when sought by Norman soldiers as a mower and escaped. A similar legend adheres to another Lancashire family, the De Traffords or Traffords in which a member of that family avoided capture by the Parliamentarians during the Civil War of the 17th Century by disguising himself as simple-minded thresher wielding a frail rather than the Pilkington's scythe.
There is certainly a possibility that this tea service was in the possession the baronetcy family of Pilkington, of Stanley in the County of Yorkshire who descended from Sir Alexander de Pilkington who held lands at Rivington during the reign of King Henry III. The baronet at the time of the manufacture of this tea service was Sir William Pilkington, the 8th Baronet (baptised 14th November 1775 died 30th 1850). Read this items heraldic identification report.
