The octagonal tray on four bun feet, with moulded borders and pear-shaped side handle with scroll supports, engraved with a coat-of-arms with earl's coronet above, all within scroll and scalework cartouche, the snuffers later engraved with a coat-of-arms with earl's coronet above, the snuffer tray marked on reverse and with scratch weight 10=3, the snuffers with scratch weight 3=11
the tray 7¹⁄₈ in. (18 cm.) long; the snuffers 5³⁄₄ in. (14.7 cm.) long
13 oz. 8 dwt. (417 gr.)
The arms on the tray are those of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758), of Dunham Massey, Cheshire.
The arms on the snuffers are those of Grey quartering Booth impaling Bentinct for George Harry, 4th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and his wife Lady Henrietta Cavendish Bentinck (1737-1827), daughter of William, 2nd Duke of Portland 1709-1762 , whom he married in 1763. Grey was later created 1st Earl of Warrington of the 2nd creation in 1796.

George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (1675-1758) of Dunham Massey, Cheshire, then by descent to his daughter,
Lady Mary Booth (1704-1772), wife of Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715-1768), then by descent to their son,
George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and his wife Lady Henrietta Bentinck (1727-1837), then by descent to,
Catherine, Lady Grey (1860-1925) of Enville Hall, Staffordshire, her son Sir John Foley-Grey 8th Bt. (1893-1938),
Catherine, Lady Grey and Sir John Foley-Grey Collection; Christie's, London, 20 April 1921, lot 26 (£38 to S. H. Harris);
Sir Hugo Hirst 1st Bt., 1st Baron Hirst (1863-1943), a German-born British industrialist and collector,
The Collection of the late Lord Hirst of Witton; Christie's, London, 15 July 1947, lot 118 (£62 to Lewis and Kaye).
Tythrop Park; Christie's House Sale, London, 27 April 1995, lot 90, when acquired by the present owner.

George, 2nd Earl of Warrington, The Particulars of my Plate and its weight, 1750, p. 17, 'Candlesticks Plain snuffers 3oz 11dt Snuffer pan plain 10oz 3dt.'.
J. Lomax and J. Rothwell, Country House Silver from Dunham Massey, National Trust, 2006, p. 183.

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Lot Essay

THE 2ND EARL OF WARRINGTON'S SILVER COLLECTION
George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington, was an important patron of the leading Huguenot silversmiths of his day, and his meticulously well-documented and extensive silver collection provides us with a fascinating insight into not only the taste of the 2nd Earl but also of the use of silver in a great English country house of the first half of the 18th century.

On his succeeding his father in 1693, the 2nd Earl inherited immense debts caused in part by his father's profligacy and his spending in support of William of Orange and the Protestant campaign to depose King James II. As a consequence the Earl was compelled to make a strategic but unhappy marriage to Mary Oldbury, the daughter of a rich London merchant, which brought him a dowry of some £40,000 in 1702. During nearly twenty years of extensive improvements to the parkland at Dunham Massey, it was said that he planted over 100,000 trees. The 2nd Earl also devoted himself to amassing a vast silver collection and the rebuilding of his family seat, Dunham Massey.

The Earl of Warrington's silver is distinguished by its high quality, heavy gauge, and conservative taste, as the Earl mostly favoured the plain and massive fashions of the early 18th century. His near obsession with building the silver collection at Dunham Massey is underscored by the existence of a lengthy inventory written in his own hand, titled 'The Particular of my Plate & Its Weight.' The seventeen-page document, dated 30 April 1750 and amended by the Earl in 1754, records over 25,000 ounces of silver objects, which include 16 pairs of snuffers and snuffer trays.

The Earl's only child, Mary, married the 4th Earl of Stamford in 1736, and after Warrington's death in 1758, Dunham Massey passed to them and subsequently descended in the Grey family, Earls of Stamford.

A significant portion of the Warrington plate, including the present lot, was sold by their heirs at Christie's in two sales, on 20 April 1921, and 25 February 1931, however, thanks to the tenacity of Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford (1896-1976) much of the silver collection was reunited and displayed at Dunham Massey following his gift of the house and estate to the National Trust. For an exhaustive and scholarly study of Lord Warrington's plate see J. Lomax and J. Rothwell, Country House Silver from Dunham Massey, National Trust, 2006. For earlier biographical studies of Lord Warrington, see J. Hayward, 'The Earl of Warrington's Plate', Apollo, July 1978, and T. Schroder, 'George Booth and William Beckford: A Study In Patronage,' International Silver and Jewellery Fair Annual, 1989.