A James II sterling silver tankard, London 1688 by John Sutton (free 19th Feb 1668)

Of gently tapering cylindrical form with moulded rims, the hollow C scroll handle leading to a flat top lid raised by a sand cast twin corkscrew thumbpiece. The lid with a broad rim with shaped protruding front section, with incised concentric circles. The front engraved with an impaled coat of arms within a widow’s lozenge, flanked by scroll mantling. Fully marked to the right of the handle and to the front of the lid.

Height – 17 cm / 6.7 inches

Weight – 816 grams / 26.24 ozt

The arms are probably for Day, including those granted 28^th October 1582 to William Bishop of Winchester (1530-1598) impaling another perhaps Hatton.

John Sutton was apprenticed to John Winterton for seven years on the 8^th Feb 1661 being turned over to Arthur Mainwaring and free by service 19^th Feb 1668.

In March 1671 he complained to Goldsmiths Hall of a bowl “with Mr Graye’s mark upon it, unduly charged in the potkin & the bottomplate’. This is most likely John Gray, for a tankard by John Gray please see the following lot. For the 1692 poll tax he was assessed with a wife, two menservants and a maidservant, where he paid an extra 10s per quarter as he net worth was in excess of £300. He bound thirteen apprentices between 1668-1699. For the Goldsmiths company he was elected to the livery in 1674 and paid to become to an assistant in 1687, touchwarden in 1696, third warden in 1701, second warden in 1703 and finally prime warden in 1707. The first plateworker to achieve being prime warden as opposed to a banker goldsmith in the early 18^th century.

A tankard of 1673 by Sutton is in the Ashmolean Collection

A tankard of 1674 by Sutton is illustrated by Brett, No. 480, sold Christie’s London, 26 Nov 2014, lot 481 (£10,000 incl. prem)

A Chinoiserie tankard of 1683 by Sutton was sold Koller, Zurich, 16 June 2020, lot 1532 (CHF 39 340 incl. prem, approx. £35,000)

A tankard of 1684 by Sutton (private collection)

A tankard of 1688 by Sutton is illustrated by Brett, No. 481

For further reading on Sutton, Mitchell, D., Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London: their lives and their marks, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2017, p.399-400.