Beschreibung:

A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT COPY OF THE 'FORTUNA BASIN'
LONDON, 1789, APPARENTLY NO MAKER'S MARK
A GEORGE III SILVER-GILT COPY OF THE 'FORTUNA BASIN' LONDON, 1789, APPARENTLY NO MAKER'S MARK Oval and chased in the Mannerist taste, the shaped moulded rim chased with scrolls, ribbon-tied fruit garlands and Jupiter's eagle-wings, with four detachable cupid heads between, the well chased with Fortuna holding a cornucopia and a river-nymph companion seated by a swan populated pool within a landscape, the centre engraved with a coat-of-arms below an earl's coronet, marked on back 23¾ in. (60.4 cm.) wide 91 oz. (2,821 gr.) The arms are those of Rous for the Earls of Stradbroke, presumably for John, 1st Earl of Stradbroke (1750-1827), son of Sir John Rous 5th Bt. Before he was elevated to the peerage he was M.P. for Suffolk from 1780 until 1796 when he was elevated as Baron Rous of Dennington. In 1821 he gained a viscountcy and earldom as Viscount Dunwich and Earl of Stradbroke. He was educated at Westminster and Magdalen College, Oxford. He married twice. His first wife Frances (d.1790), whom he married in 1788, was the daughter and heiress of Edward Warter-Wilson of Bilboa, co. Limerick. No doubt this basin, made to match the Lencker basin, was commissioned following Rous' wedding. His second wife, Charlotte (d.1856), was the eldest daughter of Abraham Whittaker of Stratford, co. Essex and Lyston House, co. Hereford. Lord Stradbroke died at 33 Hertford Street, Mayfair in 1827.