Beschreibung:

[AUSTEN, Jane (1775-1817)]. A pair of George III silver chamber candlesticks, maker's mark IA probably for Jonathan Alleine, London, 1779. Each plain circular with urn-shaped sockets, detachable nozzles and snuffers, engraved on the well, nozzle and snuffer with a crest. Each approx. 160 x 130 x 90mm, weight 232g (7.45 troy oz). Austen family candlesticks, possibly used by Jane Austen's family at Steventon Rectory. The heraldic crest is that of the Austen family of Grovehurst and Broadford, Kent: On a mural crown or, a stag sejant argent, attired or, as borne by Jane Austen's father, the Reverend George Austen (1731-1805) and a number of members of the family. George Austen is one of four possible owners in 1779: whilst seven male members of the Austen family were entitled to display the family crest at that date, three of these (George's uncle Francis (1698-1791) and his cousins John (1761-1831) and Sackville (c.1760-1786)) were either too old or too young to have been likely to be purchasing new silverware. The remaining possibilities are his cousins John Austen of Broadford (1726-1807), Francis Motley Austen (1747-1815) and the Reverend Harry Austen (1726-1807). Although there are few records of George Austen’s collections, there is evidence that he owned silver, as Jane and her mother arranged for some ‘old, or useless silver’ to be melted down in 1808 and converted to new spoons. There is also evidence that he used and proudly displayed the family crest: in 1797, ahead of the marriage of Jane’s brother Henry (1771-1850), it was noticed that ‘his Father set up a carriage which, not unnaturally, bore on its pannels [sic] the family crest: namely, a stag on a Crown Mural’. As their name suggests, chamber candlesticks served for family members as they retired to bed in the evening: the worn condition of the present pair indicates that they saw regular use.