MARK OF JOHN DUCK, LONDON, 1690

Based on the prick engraved initials MS found on the underside of the present lot, the later engraved squirrel crest might be that of Skereth or Smithson.

Goldsmith John Duck (b. 1653) began his career in 1669 apprenticed to goldsmith Roger Stevens, whose wife Katherine took over the business following his sudden death in 1673. Duck became a freeman in 1677, and married his former master’s daughter Hannah Stevens in 1678. Though he is believed to have died in 1745, no works have been found baring the mark of a goose, or duck, in a dotted circle later than 1694.

For an extensive discussion regarding the attribution of this mark to John Duck and an investigation into his life, see “The ‘Goose in a Dotted Circle’; a Mystery of the Seventeenth Century Investigated” by John Culme in the catalogue for The Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection: English 17th Century Chinoiserie Silver, Sotheby’s, 21 May 1992, also revised and republished in The Silver Society Journal, no. 14, 2002, pp. 97-105.

According to the recent publication D. Mitchell, Silversmiths in Elizabethan and Stuart London, Woodbridge, 2017, pp. 610-611, there are eighteen known occurances of the mark of John Duck, including the porringer offered here. Of the other examples of Duck's work, very similar engraved decoration of Chinoiserie figures and fantastical birds amongst potted foliage to that on the present lot can be found on a pair of exceptional James II tankards dated 1686. Known as the Brownlow tankards, they were owned by Sir John Brownlow, 3rd Bt. (1659-1697), before passing through the Brownlow and Allnatt families. They were eventually sold twice at Christie’s London, first by the Rt. Hon. The Lord Brownlow in 1963, then John Allnatt Esq in 1968, before being offered along with the present lot in the 1992 sale of the Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection at Sotheby’s New York. They were most recently sold from The Whiteley Trust Silver Collection, Christie’s, London, 13 June 2000, lot 19 (£938,750). Another porringer and cover by John Duck, dated 1686, with similar engraved decoration and identical handles, was also sold from The Whiteley Trust Silver Collection, lot 15. Further examples of John Duck’s work sold at Christie’s include a beaker, sold London, 1 December 2004, lot 721, a porringer, sold South Kensington, 8 March 2011, lot 68, another beaker, sold Christie’s, London, 27-28 November 2012, lot 761, and a porringer and cover, sold in Julians Park and Six Private Collections, London, 8 June 2021, lot 299.