A large Charles II sterling silver twin handled porringer, London 1662 possibly by John Burges (free. 1624, d. 1662)

Of rounded baluster form upon a short collet foot with a caulked rim, the sand cast twin S scroll handles terminating with modelled heads above moulded, and ring punched sections. The body with embossed decoration to one side of a unicorn passant and to the other a lion courant regardant, each between fleshy tulips or cabbage roses, heightened with prick dot decoration. Engraved underneath Atwill Lake and with scratch weight 27=5=Oz. Marked underneath, partially obscured, maker’s mark JB in script monogram between pellets.

Length – 23 cm / 9 inches

Height – 14.8 cm / 5.8 inches

Weight – 817 grams / 26.27 ozt

This mark is given a possible attribution to Thomas King in Mitchell, D., Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: their lives and their marks, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017, p.409.

John Burges was apprenticed to Thomas Holland for eight years from midsummer 1616, free by service 10^th September 1624.

Other surviving pieces bearing this maker’s mark:

A communion cup of 1631 (St Dunstan Stepney)

A communion paten of 1631 (Wootton Bassett)

A chalice and paten of 1640 (Jackson 1989)

A communion flagon of 1656 (St James, Friern)

A tankard of 1655 (Jackson 1921)

A communion flagons of 1660 (St George’s Chapel, Windsor)

A cup of 1662 (Jackson 1989)