Sauce
boats and Tureens
A sauce boat on cast foot
with applied strapwork and shell motifs with leaf-capped scroll handles.
Robert Garrard 1826 (ht9in/22cm)
The
earliest English and American sauce boats date from the reign of George
I (1714 - 1727). Often fairly shallow and thus with a small capacity, they
nevertheless are highly collectable.. Early examples have simple waved
borders, but soon acquire gadroon
edges that predominate until the 1770s, when punched or beaded borders
appear. With the onset of the Regency
period the sauce boat becomes more elaborately decorated with massive borders
and feet, and the handles become a major feature, as they occasionally
were in the mid-18th century. With a few exceptions, design
stagnated during the 19th century and later examples followed
previous tastes. Sauceboats always come in pairs. Only American examples
are acceptable singly.
Sauce boats are generally marked
in a straight line on the underside. Some from the 1 770s are marked under
the lip, where they often get rubbed. Those on a central foot can be marked
either on the rim or on the inside of the foot.
A soup tureen c.1760, (width
17.25in/44cm). with unusual horse-head finial and lion's paw feet.
Soup
tureens can be found from the reign of George II (1727 - 1760), but were
not made in quantity before the 1760s. Usually oval, early examples stand
on four feet until about 1780, when they rest on a central foot. In the
early 19th century they return to four feet. The best tureens
are sometimes found on stands, which greatly increases the value.
Borders
generally follow the fashion of the period. The best pieces are decorated
with vegetables, crustacea and other animals. Sometimes the more complicatedly
shaped tureens were fitted with detachtable liners made of plate.
Soup tureens are fully marked
on the base, except for those on a pedestal foot, which are found with
marks on the rim or on the inside of the foot Prior to 1784 the lids were
also fully hallmarked and thereafter it is usual to have at least the maker's
mark, lion passant and date letter and sovereign's head. After 1784 covers
are marked in the same way as soup tureen covers. Any liner or stand will
generally bear a full set of hallmarks, with the exception of the town
mark.
Oblong sauce tureen with
gadrooning and engraved crest London 1810
Although
soup tureens were made for the grander houses throughout the 19th
century, sauce tureens, which nearly always have a lid, almost exactly
span the reigns of George III (1760 - 1820) and George IV (1820 - 1830).
They largely follow the design of contemporary soup tureens and some were
even made en suite. Sauce tureens on stands are rare, although there
are a few surviving examples. The designers seem to have reserved their
decorative fancies for the larger soup tureen, although heraldic finials
are more often seen on sauce tureens than on soup tureens.
Sauce tureens are fully marked
on the body, but before 1784 are likely to have only the maker's mark and
lion passant on the cover